《飘》是一部有关战争的小说，但作者玛格丽特没有把着眼点放在战场上。除了亚特兰大失陷前五角场上躺满伤病员那悲壮的一幕外，其他战争场景并没有花费作者过多的笔墨。作为第一部从南方女性角度来叙述美国内战的小说，玛格丽特着重描写了留在后方家里的妇女饱受战乱之苦的体验和感受，从战争伊始对战争怀有崇敬心理、对战争全然的支持，到因战争而带来的失去亲人的痛苦、不得不屈服于失败的命运以及战后立志重建家园的艰辛历程。战争失败了，有的人因此而意志消沉，失去了原有的斗志，无法调整好自己的心态，面对战后支离破碎的生活。反之，另外一些人则克服了失败的心理，凛然面对严酷的现实，成了生活中不畏困难、重新前进在生活旅途上的强者。

Margaret Mitchell's epic novel of love and war won the Pulitzer Prize and went on to give rise to two authorized sequels and one of the most popular and celebrated movies of all time. Many novels have been written about the Civil War and its aftermath. None take us into the burning fields and cities of the American South as Gone With the Wind does, creating haunting scenes and thrilling portraits of characters so vivid that we remember their words and feel their fear and hunger for the rest of our lives. In the two main characters, the white-shouldered, irresistible Scarlett and the flashy, contemptuous Rhett, Margaret Mitchell not only conveyed a timeless story of survival under the harshest of circumstances, she also created two of the most famous lovers in the English-speaking world since Romeo and Juliet.