Similarities Between Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is about the narrator, John as he visits Savannah and how he interacts with the other characters in the book. While in Savannah, the narrator tells the readers of his travels as the story progress with the information he uses for his writing. However, the same time he is there, his visit coincidentally occurs the same time a murder of one of the characters, a gay man, who was supposedly murdered by his partner. Before reading the story, the title of this book gives a dark mood because it talks of the balance between good and evil. Also, with evil there will probably serious times during this story due to the results of the evil occurrences. “Then silently, almost imperceptibly, he released a sigh allowing his shoulders to relax.” “That was Danny Hansford,” he said ‘He works for me parttime refinishing furniture in my workshop’ Williams studied the end of his cigar. He was calm, controlled” (Berendt 25). As Jim Williams talks to the narrator he disregards any attitude brought into the room by Danny. Danny barges into the room without knocking, yelling about his life, and demanding things of Williams. However, Williams does nothing, but watch what Danny does;
Williams calmly responds and watches Danny as he screams all of his complaints. Besides this, Williams tries telling Danny the right thing to do and to keep him from doing what he wants. However, his words were in vain as Danny still goes out to get wasted and recklessly drive his car around town. “What do you think about when you come here?” she said. “Dyin’,” he said. She laughed. “I mean, besides that.” “Bein’ dead,” “That’s horrible!” she said. “No, come on, really” “I told you. I think about dyin’ bein’ dead. What do you think about?” (Berendt 134).The tone shown by this quote is solemn. From Danny’s thoughts, the solemnly of the story is shown, when he explains his thoughts of dying and what kind of tombstone he will have when he dies. However, when Danny says his thoughts compared to the girl he is with, Corinne, the vast difference between the two only emphasize the grim and humorless tone and thoughts in his mind. Although, they both think of the cemetery as a peaceful place, they have different perceptions of peaceful. Danny thinks of peaceful as in a serene, quiet, and charming death, while Corrine thinks of peaceful as in beautiful and quiet, like the appearance of the cemetery; this also helps show the difference in their thoughts.
Another mood expressed by one of the characters, Luther and Jim Williams, is devious.
“He was tall, about fifty, with darkly handsome, almost sinister features: a neatly trimmed mustache, hair turning silver at the temples, and eyes so black they were like the tinted windows of a sleek limousine- he could see out, but you couldn’t see in” (Berendt 10). The use of the word sinister explains the devious mood the author uses to explain for Jim Williams. “I’d go back to Oatland Island and dig up some more, probably,” said Luther. Whatever his intentions, Luther clearly relished the speculation about his sinister power” (Berendt 79). The use of sinister in this description shows the devious mood as his possible future attempt at murdering a vast majority of people is
immoral.
In conclusion, these quotes from the author show that the author wants their readers to feel the solemn tone through his characters, especially from the thoughts and how they express themselves. The author wants his readers to feel the solemn mood through the setting and the choice of words coming from his characters.