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North and South Redux

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While I was collecting North and South links I realized I never wrote about why I loved North and South.  Talk about oversight.  It’s something I really wanted to share though, so…

 

In a word, change.

Margaret’s, to be exact.  That’s what I love most.

More than the sumptuous love story.

Than the eye-opening strike.

Even more than John Thornton. (I know, I know.)

I liked Margaret from the beginning.  Despite her flaws, she has loyalty towards her family and wasn’t afraid to speak her mind, even though her ideas are sometimes misled.

“Margaret was not a ready lover, but where she loved she loved passionately, and with no small degree of jealousy. ”

She starts off in the north completely clueless, making one social faux pas after another.  She doesn’t understand the north, neither does she like it.  But there she is.

And while she tries to make the best of it most of the time, she doesn’t particularly approve.

“I wish I could tell you how lonely I am. How cold and harsh it is here. Everywhere there is conflict and unkindness. I think God has forsaken this place. I believe I have seen hell and it’s white, it’s snow-white.”

By the end of the book, she’s changed.

Margaret goes from appearing  proud and shunning the new society to wanting to better it and aid in advancement.

The idea that a young woman could go from misunderstanding and pompous to embracing an entirely new lifestyle far from all she’s ever known gives me hope.

That you don’t have to be who you always were.  It’s possible to change, get better.  Be informed. Let go of old prejudices, and don’t believe things only because that’s what you’ve always been told.

Hope of change, above all else, is what draws me to North and South.

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