The main theme in Gone with the Wind is that of survival in times during which traditions, ways of life and thinking, even love and understanding are gone with the wind, such as in the South during the Civil War. Based on Margaret Mitchell's 1936 best-seller, “Gone With the Wind” is fiction, about a spoiled Old South socialite, Scarlett O'Hara. But the real-life war that serves as her story's backdrop looms too large in the film for many to overlook.

Gone with the Wind is an American novel written by Margaret Mitchell in 1936. In The Outsiders, it symbolizes the closeness between Ponyboy and his friend Johnny. This shows that Johnny listens to Ponyboy and remembers details about what he likes, wants, and dreams of. This is a sign of true friendship.