Cultural Activity Essay Examples

I have always worshiped Margaret Mitchell and her masterpiece “Gone With the Wind” has been my favorite book for years. Therefore I have decided to visit Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta.
On 11 June 2016 I with my best friend, who is also Margaret Mitchell’s fan, attended the house, where great writer wrote her Pulitzer-Prize winning novel. We approached the museum in 12 a.m., bought tickets and started our tour with the first exhibition, Crescent Avenue apartment.
In 1925, she settled in this house where the famous novel was written, together with her second husband. Their family occupied a small part of the house of two rooms and a kitchen, where dozen guests have always visited. I was surprised that Margaret Mitchell had been living in such a small apartment. There is nothing extraordinary, no special luxury. Margaret Mitchell didn’t like this place too much and called it “The Dump”.
Next exhibition was called “Margaret Mitchell: A Passion for Character Exhibition”. It was very exciting and inspirational. I have learned a lot of different interesting facts about this extraordinary woman.
Margaret Mitchell was born in 1900 in Atlanta (GA), in a rich family. Her paternal ancestors were from Ireland, maternal were French. During the war, both Margaret's grandfather fought on the Confederate side; one was shot in the head, the other for a long time was hiding from Yankees. Margaret's father, Eugene Mitchell, a famous lawyer in Atlanta, a real estate expert, who in his youth has dreamed of becoming a writer, was the chairman of the local historical society, so Margaret and her brother grew up in an atmosphere of stories about the stunning events of recent times.
Margaret started to be interested in literature at school: she wrote plays for school theatre about the life of the exotic countries, including the history of Russia; she loved to dance, ride a horse. After high school she studied at the seminary named Washington, then studied for almost a year at Smith College in Northampton (Massachusetts), hoping to go to Austria for training to Sigmund Freud.
Since 1922 Margaret has started her job in journalism, becoming a reporter and essayist in a newspaper “Atlanta Journal” which specialized in historical essays. In 1925, she married John Marsh, an insurance agent, and at the request of her husband left her job of the reporter and moved with him to not far from her illustrious Peachtree Street.
There Margaret began the life of typical provincial lady that was a bit different from the other provincial houses. It was full of some pieces of paper, that the constant guests enjoyed reading. These pieces of paper were pages of the novel “Gone with the Wind” which was created from 1926 to 1936. Legend has it that the creation of the novel began in 1926. In December 1935 she had written final version of the novel, and the manuscript was sent to the publisher. The name of the protagonist of the novel was found at the last minute - directly from the publisher.
The atmosphere of the house introduces the spirit of the life of Margaret Mitchell: there are a lot of her photos, including with colleagues from the “Atlanta Journal”, where she worked for several years. You can see a lot of publications about her on the walls.
Our next stop during this trip was the exhibition called “The Making of a Film Legend: Gone With the Wind exhibition”. This part of the tour gives the visitors the opportunity to explore the transformation of Gone With the Wind from a novel to a world-known film.
The museum has the adapted text of the script of the actors of “Gone With the Wind” and many interesting exhibits dedicated to the film: for example, a hat, which appears on the screen on Scarlett head. It was interesting to read a copy of corrected details of the novel (for example, the name of Pansy – first name of the main character - is replaced by Scarlett).
It is believed that the main characters of the novel were prototypes: for the image of Scarlett reflects many traits and appearance of Margaret Mitchell herself, the image of Rhett Butler might be created due to Reda Upshaw - first husband of Margaret. The theme of the novel itself Margaret defined as “survival”.
During this trip we have found out that attempts by reporters to ask Margaret if she has written in the novel about herself and that Scarlett is really a prototype of he writer, brought her into a rage: “Scarlett is prostitute, I am not”. There is a very interesting quote on of the walls of the museum: I tried to describe not a delightful woman, about whom we can say nothing good, and I tried to show her bad temper. I find it absurd and ridiculous, that Miss O'Hara has become something of a national character, I think it is very bad - for the moral and intellectual condition of the nation, - if the nation is able to applaud and to worship a woman who behaved in this way”.
On the territory of the museum there is also a temporary exhibition which is called “Flashback: Atlanta in the 70s, The Photography of Boyd Lewis”. My friend found this exhibition very interesting and motivating as she is interested in photography. This part of the tour showed us the sights of Atlanta’s history and its real life’s story. There are different events captured on his pictures: the “March Against Oppression” to protest the shooting deaths by police, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performance, photo of the members of ZZ Top while making their handprints in a cement block, anti-war demonstration, numerous protests o support African American rights and other moments of Atlanta’s life in the 70’s which, as far as I can see, represent the American history itself.
Not far from Margaret Mitchell’s home visitors have the opportunity to attend gift shop and buy some souvenirs. I bought a beautiful music box and several post cards with Atlanta sights of Margaret Mitchell times.