# The Founding of the Philomathean Society explained — Cimarron

> Chapter companion for Cimarron by Edna Ferber.

## What happens

Sabra Cravat, struggling with the harsh realities of frontier life in Osage, attempts to impose Southern social order by founding a women's culture club, the Philomathean Society. She recruits members including Mrs. Evergreen Waltz, whom she admires for her refinement. Meanwhile, Yancey Cravat publishes a practical joke edition of the newspaper, revealing his rebellious, idealistic nature. The chapter culminates in the murder of Mrs. Waltz by her husband, who intercepts a letter from her lover, exposing her past as a prostitute. Sabra confronts Yancey, who implies he knew the truth all along.

## Themes in this chapter

### Gender Roles and Women's Agency

Sabra asserts agency by founding a culture club to impose social order, yet her efforts are undermined by the violent reality of male-dominated frontier life and her own naivety about Mrs. Waltz's past.

### Myth vs. Reality

The romanticized ideal of frontier refinement (Sabra's club, Mrs. Waltz's embroidered underthings) clashes with the harsh reality of violence, prostitution, and moral hypocrisy.

## Character check-ins

### Sabra Cravat

Founder of the Philomathean Society; struggles with frontier life and attempts to recreate Southern social order; horrified by Mrs. Waltz's murder and her own naivety.

### Yancey Cravat

Publishes a satirical newspaper edition; idealistic but muddled; reveals he knew Mrs. Waltz's past and is amused by Sabra's innocence.

### Mrs. Evergreen Waltz

Pretty young wife of a crippled gambler; recruited by Sabra for the culture club; murdered by her husband after he intercepts a letter from her lover.

### Isaiah

Household member who retrieves a copy of the fake newspaper for Sabra.

### Jesse Rickey

Assists Yancey in distributing the fake newspaper and shares in the joke.

## Key lines

> Grimly Sabra (and, in time, the other virtuous women of the community) set about making this new frontier town like the old as speedily as possible.

Sabra and the other respectable women worked determinedly to recreate the familiar social structures of the East in the frontier town.

_Highlights Sabra's role in imposing social order and the tension between old and new._

> Yancey, almost single handed, tried to make the new as unlike the old as possible. He fought a losing fight from the first.

Yancey attempted to forge a new, utopian society but was ultimately unsuccessful against the women's conservative influence.

_Illustrates the central conflict between Yancey's idealism and Sabra's traditionalism._

> Why didn't you tell me that when she married him she was a girl out of a⁠—out of a⁠—house!

Sabra angrily asks Yancey why he didn't reveal that Mrs. Waltz was a former prostitute.

_Shows Sabra's shock and the revelation of Mrs. Waltz's hidden past._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/cimarron_se/chapters/x
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/cimarron_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/cimarron_se/chapters