Gone with the Wind (novel) novel has become a reference point for subsequent writers of the South, both black and white. Scholars at American universities refer to, interpret, and study it in their writings. The novel has been absorbed into American popular culture. Mitchell received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the book in 1937. It was adapted into a 1939 American film. "Gone with the Wind" is the only novel by Mitchell published during her lifetime. Mitchell used color symbolism, especially the colors red and green, which frequently are associated with Scarlett O'Hara. Mitchell identified the primary theme as survival. She left the ending
Gone with the Wind in the Vatican by an illegitimate daughter. The book also raises questions about the death of Pope John Paul I. Another anecdote details an affair between a young priest at the nunciature in Bern, Switzerland and a nun, who are both reassigned – the nun significantly less gainfully – with the help of the priest's influential Vatican patron. Some critics regard the work as little more than "another recent catalogue of papal sin" and consider the majority of its details dubious. Others have a more favorable view of the work, considering it a "kiss-and-tell classic". Gone with the Wind in the Vatican Gone