TO READ THE STORY
Ladies who lunch
Helen Walters explores ways of making the most of group dynamics in your fiction, with an example story by Edith Whar ton
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/24131/24131-h/24131-h.htm
This month’s story, ‘Xingu’ by Edith Wharton is about ladies who lunch. It’s a light and amusing story, but with some ‘heavy’ language. I had to look up several words in the dictionary.
On that note, you may well be wondering what Xingu means, but I’m not going to tell you. It’s much better if you read the story for yourself and find out at the end: www.gutenberg.org/files/24131/24131- h/24131-h.htm
One of the interesting things about the story is that it depicts group dynamics very well. The characters are all members of a ladies’ club of a cultural nature, and the story is a skilful observation of how the group operates. One thing we find out early on, is that the members of the club all have issues with each other and there is a lot of one-up-manship going on. We get to witness the impact that a recently joined member, Mrs Roby, has on the existing mix, and see what happens when a famous out-of-town writer, Osric Dane, visits.
We’re going to look at each of the club members individually first, then look at the group dynamic.
Let’s start with the ‘President’ of the club, Mrs Ballinger. She is the leader of the group and we learn in the first paragraph that she has surrounded herself with ‘indomitable huntresses of erudition’ since culture is dangerous to meet alone. We also discover Mrs Ballinger is always determined to be ‘up’ on any current subject, having taken measures to be prepared for anything which Osric Dane might want to discuss.