Accidental Leaders

    Leadership is an extremely challenging thing by itself. It is the type of burden that can define lives and create legacies. People choose to be leaders for a variety of different reasons, however, that is not the topic that I will discuss today. There are certain occasions where we see people thrown into leadership positions without really having much say about it. Gone With The Wind, a movie based in the Civil War time period, has prime examples of people who have been thrust into leadership positions by mere accident. Although these people were not natural leaders, and maybe had not even realized they were leaders, they still made the best of it and found ways to lead in their own ways. This accidental form of leadership is very informal, but also effective in times of crisis when leadership is required. 

    Scarlet O'Hara is the main character of Gone With The Wind. She is a pretentious girl who does not care for much else other than her love life. She is one of the most self centered people to ever grace a big screen at the beginning of the movie. However, she is quickly thrust into a makeshift leadership role that requires her to grow up a little bit. I would not say she is a conventional leader that people want to follow because of any outstanding qualities. However, she stumbles into this leadership role, and people follow her mostly because there is no other choice. This accidental leadership is a huge reason that we see Scarlet mature a lot and become a developed character. The scene that is the most powerful and a prime example of Scarlet's development into an accidental leader is the scene in the rain under the bridge. She is taking care of a dying woman, and a helpless woman, and she is standing strong in the water under the bridge with chaos happening all around her. If you would have told me that the strong, dependable person in this scene was the same person who had a man get her dessert for her at a barbecue, I would simply not have believed you. I think another example of an accidental leader in this movie is Mammy. She had the entire O'Hara house in order and it ran extremely smoothly and impressively. She probably did not intend to be a leader, but she unintentionally filled a void that was present. 

    There are certain situations that we see accidental leaders come to light. One of the prime examples in cinema that we see accidental leaders come to light is war. In war movies, people are forced to become leaders, whether they want to or not. One of my favorite examples of this is Mel Gibson in The Patriot. War is such a dire situation that requires people to be heroes, and cinema does an excellent job of capturing these stories and showing the accidental leadership of people in war.