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Page 12 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE December 1 2, 1986
A Jewish Scarlett in 18612
Jewish ‘Differences’ similar to GWTW
by David Bittner
As “Gone With the Wind"
entered its 5()th year of publica
tion in 1986. book-lovers and
history bulls around the nation
celebrated the occasion. Special
anniversary editions of Margaret
Mitchell’s classic were published
in hardback and softback, and
golden anniversary festivities
were held in Atlanta and Clayton
County, home of Tara. Few were
aware that as “Gone With the
Wind" marked its 50th birthday,
nearly 120 years had passed since
the publication of “Differences,”
an 1867 novel by Nathan Mayer
describing the fortunes of a fam
ily of southern Jewish planters
just before, during and just after
the Civil War. It would not be
very much of an exaggeration to
say that this epic of the Gold-
mans of Pineland, a plantation in
Tennessee , is a Jewish “Gone
With the Wind.”
First of all. both novels hinge
on similar devices of plot, mostly
supplied by contemporaneous
events. As their human sagas
unfold, both novels trace the
progress of the Civil War. In
parallel scenes parties are inter
rupted by news flashes that
Abraham Lincoln has been elected
president; soldiers drill, prepar
ing for war; we see Ashley W'ilkes
and Louis Welland, the Jewish
hero of “Differences,” in battle;
they carry keepsakes from Scar
lett O’Hara and Antonia Gold
man. the heroine of “Differen
ces”; on the homefront Scarlett
and Antonia roll bandages and
tend wounded soldiers; Rhett
Butler and Mr. Merrins, a Jewish
merchant in “Differences,” carry
out daring blockade runs of cot
ton to England; the war is lost,
the Yankees sweep the south,
and the O'Haras and the Gold-
mans are ruined.
Some other aspects of the nov
els are not exactly parallel but
still similar. Rhett Butler is ac
cused of smuggling the Confed
erate treasury out of the devas
tated Southland; Louis Welland
has been framed in Europe for
absconding with the funds of the
1848 revolutionary government;
Butler is nearly hanged; Welland
is nearly lynched. Important turns
in the plots of both novels depend
on the outcomes of archaic card
games like “brag” and “whist.”
Finally, there is an unavoidable
linguistic similarity between the
locations of Tara and Pineland
in Clayton County (Georgia) and
Claiborne County (Tennessee).
It is noteworthy that both
“Differences” and “Gone With
the Wind” paint similar portraits
of southern antebellum society.
It is a matter of course that Mar
garet Mitchell, a daughter of the
Old South, should include char
acters drawn from all segments
of that society, including blacks,
“poor whites” and Yankee over
seers. It is significant that Mayer
does not neglect to delineate these
same classes. He gives us Anto
nia’s “Mammy” and Goldman
house slaves who look down their
noes at “field niggers"; describes
poor whites who trade with the
Goldmans as “miserable beings
whose intelligence is at a min
imum”; and includes some amus
ing incidents involving the Gold-
mans’ overseers, northern Jews
named Mr. Sharp and Mr. Her
ring. In thus painting the Gold-
mans as part of a total picture of
southern society, Mayer obviously
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differences.
A NOVEL.
CHAPTER I.
HERE is a glitter and a
fragrance in the mere name
if the South, which are
associated with sunny skies
ind exuberant vegetation. Like
a Nile of the new world the Mis
sissippi pours its vast stream ;
• it is bordered by bluffs, that are
pyramids of God’s own making ;
and in their soil repose chieftains,
that have never been tyrants, surrounded
by warriors, that have never been slaves.
These exquisitely German reflections pas
sed through the mind of Louis Welland, as
the steamer Powhattan, on which he was a
passenger, approached the wharves of
Memphis, It weis precisely the most inap-
1*
seeks to validate the Jews in that
society. He is eager to claim a
place among the landed white
class for them, as when he has
Charles Goldman, Antonia’s
brother, debate Merrins’ asser
tion that Jews “have nothing to
do with country or rights.” Charles
calls this a “monstrous doc
trine.”
Finally, one observes a strong
sociological similarity between
the O'Haras and the Goldmans
themselves. Both families are
newcomers to southern society.
The O’Haras hail from Ireland
and France and the Goldmans
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from France and Germany. Mrs.
Goldman’s grandfather and Mrs.
O’Hara’s father both served in
Napoleon's army; Mrs. Goldman
refers to her formidable old aunt,
the daughter of a Napoleonic
general, as “Madame la Gene-
rale.” Both Gerald O'Hara, Scar
lett’s father, and Mr. and Mrs.
Goldman have similar ambitions
for their children. When Gerald
arrived from Ireland he had
trouble finding a wife because
“no family wanted a daughter to
wed a man about whose grand
father nothing was known.” In
establishing himself at Tara,
Gerald has paved the way for
Scarlett, who has her pick of
beaux. The Goldmans have prom
ised Antonia’s hand to their non-
Jewish neighbor, Frank Tourte-
lotte. They “hope to see their
children take their place among
the aristocracy of Tennessee,”
secure in the belief that “it is the
wife who determines the religion
of the children.” (The Goldmans
send their son Charles to New
York to find a Jewish wife.)
Of course it would be dishon
est not to note the limitations of a
comparison between “Gone With
the Wind” and “Differences."
Nathan Mayer, an associate ol
Isaac Mayer Wise, was a Ger
man-born physician, and the
literary value of his work suffers
in comparison to that of “Gone
With the Wind.” The writing of
“Differences” is stilted. Mayer
reveals his foreign background in
the use of such German phrases
as “howling with the wolves” (an
expression signifying assent with
the majority). He has no ear for
black dialect. His difficulty
shows in the near-standard Eng
lish of his slave characters.
Most important, “Differences”
lacks the rich character devel
opment of “Gone With the Wind."
This is particularly true in regard
to Antonia Goldman, with whom
very much of a comparison with
Scarlett O’Hara would be forced
and misleading. Antonia may
simper and spin her parasol as
coquettishly as Scarlett, but the
similarity between the two char
acters stops there. Antonia is
flatly virtuous in contrast to Scar
lett, who usually manages to do
the right thing but often for sub
tle motives. During the first days
of Reconstruction, for instance,
the politically apathetic Scarlett
rebuilds war-torn Tara much less
because she wants to see the
South rise again than because
she is motivated by grim sell-
interest. Antonia’s admirers, on
the other hand, observe that “she
would be found ready to lay her
life down at any moment for the
good ol the South.” The scenes at
the ends of the novels are also
strongly in contrast. The end of
“Gone With the Wind” is a study
in complexity and realism, as
Scarlett reels from her discovers
of Ashley Wilkes’ feebleness and
unworlhiness and despairs that
she has only too late recognized
Rhett Butler’s value. The end of
“Differences” is simple and bliss-
Continued next page.
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