“Gone With the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell (post 12): Scarlett’s masculine alternate personality reflects the author’s masculine alternate personality, “Jimmy”

In a previous post, I quoted another character as telling Scarlett that her recent switch to a masculine businesswoman personality was really nothing new, since Scarlett had had that kind of personality in childhood, too.

Scarlett’s masculine alternate personality probably reflects Margaret Mitchell’s masculine alternate personality, which originated in Margaret Mitchell’s childhood:

“In an accident that was traumatic for her mother although she was unharmed [physically], when little Margaret was about three years old, her dress caught fire on an iron grate. Fearing it would happen again, her mother began dressing her in boys' pants, and she was nicknamed "Jimmy," the name of a character in the comic strip, Little Jimmy. Her brother insisted she would have to be a boy named Jimmy to play with him. Having no sisters to play with, Margaret said she was a boy named Jimmy until she was fourteen” (1).

1. Wikipedia. “Margaret Mitchell.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Mitchell