Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil #2
Theme: social status
"Married Woman's (as it was known for short) was one of Savannah's most exclusive societies" (Berendt, 153).
In Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, there exists many exclusive clubs such as the Married Woman's Card Club or the Oglethorpe club. These clubs followed strict rules and customs, and was very restrictive in regards to membership. As this is a nonfiction book, the clubs and their limitations portrayed how segmented Savannah's society is. However, these clubs can be likened to college sororities or fraternities. The purpose of these clubs is to create lasting bonds between similar people, so that people don't have to be lonely or feel as though they are friendless, despite the bustling nature and tightness of everyone's schedule. The club gives everyone a common time and place to hold meetings, which means you always know when you will be able to see your friends in the future. While these clubs may be seen solely for their social stratification, I think they serve a greater purpose of allowing social connections within Savannah to flourish.
posted by k1donna @ 10:23:00 PM
2 Comments:
I think it's important to consider the clubs in their original context- whereas frats and sororities these days are for college recreational things like partying and letting people with similar tastes hang out together, these clubs were initially founded as exclusive venues for identifying and sticking around with the classes of people you want to be a part of. The notion of these clubs is exceedingly old-fashioned, and yet the idea behind them still flourishes in Savannah, and they haven't been replaced by nightclubs and the like which are very prevalent throughout Savannah. What makes these high-class, exclusive clubs so different from regular nightclubs? They give their members a sense of privacy, and maybe some superiority, as well as community that the members can feel like they are part of at all points. So I wouldn't say they're for promoting social connections so much, since they're for select people to enjoy, but more for providing a sense of security and belonging just to a group of specially handpicked people who were favourably looked-upon by the original founders of the club.
I agree that the exclusive society clubs give their members a sense of superiority, but I also think they provide an equally great deal of social connections as well. The clubs offer a more relaxed setting for the members of Savannah's high society to strengthen and support their bonds with one another. I particularly found the Married Woman's Club to be quite a spectacle. The major requirement for entry to the club was that the woman must be married. I found it fascinating that, "More than one marriage had been held together by that rule alone" (Berendt, 155). In a twisted way, the Married Woman's Club is keeping relationships together.
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