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Granny Weatherall Symbolism Essay

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The term jilted means to drop impulsively or without feeling. Granny Weatherall’s memories, of being jilted by George, are directly preceded by statements which are symbolizing her children, first being young, and dependent on Weatherall, then coming into the age of being more independent of her. Porter states, “Lighting the lamps had been beautiful. The children huddled up to her and breathed like little calves waiting at the bars in the twilight. Their eyes followed the match and watched the flame rise and settle in a blue curve, then they moved away from her. The lamp was lit, they didn’t have to be scared and hang on to mother any more. Never, never, never more.” The blue light is also symbolic of life and how time turns. Granny Weatherall’s …show more content…

She is in denial of her own impending death. Granny Weatherall finds all the fuss over her maddening, and views Cornelia as an annoyance. Porter states, “Cornelia was dutiful; that was the trouble with her. Dutiful and good: “So good and dutiful,” said Granny, “that I’d like to spank her.” She saw herself spanking Cornelia and making a fine job of it.” Granny Weatherall is certain that she does not need the doctor, and regards him as being a child. Again, the symbolism of being wasteful is referenced in her feelings toward the doctor. Porter states, “She flicked her wrist neatly out of Doctor Harry’s pudgy careful fingers and pulled the sheet up to her chin. The brat ought to be in knee breeches…“Get along and doctor your sick,” said Granny Weatherall. “Leave a well woman alone. I’ll call for you when I want you…Where were you forty years ago when I pulled through milk-leg and double pneumonia? You weren’t even born. Don’t let Cornelia lead you on,” she shouted, because Doctor Harry appeared to float up to the ceiling and out. “I pay my own bills, and I don’t throw my money away on nonsense!” Granny Weatherall sees wasted money, on a doctor which she does not need, in the same light as any other

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She uses humour right from the start with “[t]here’s been a lot of whining about health care recently” (par. 1) and “[d]espite the growing misfit between health are costs and personal incomes, it is not yet illegal to be sick.” (par. 1). She induces a feeling of how satirical hospitals are handling things, as well as a slight underlying seriousness that being sick is a major problem. She adds phrases such as “given the hospitals’ predatory collection tactics, [you may] wind up in jail” (par. 7), “some bright young MBA… is no doubt coming to the conclusion that a great deal of money and valuable medical resources could be saved through the simple expedient of arresting people at the first sign of illness.” (par. 9) and “[s]hould a rash or sore throat arrive, I stand ready, at some deep psychic level, to serve my time.”

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Grandma seems to be an ungrateful person in parts of the book, but she is grateful for Lady Frankland at the end of the book. After all of the hurtful things that she has said to Lady Franklin it must be hard for grandma to be so forgiving and thankful. “Thank you.” (Rinaldi 271). I don’t think that grandma has ever said thank you to anybody and after all these years grandma has the courage to thank her for everything she has done.

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What is the word believability? To me, believability is the ability to relate and empathize with something or someone. I am more likely to believe a person if I can relate to them and their experiences. In the story, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall by Katherine Anne Porter the readers experience the death of an old woman named Ellen Weatherall, while in The Storm by Kate Chopin a woman called Calixta has an affair with her former lover whilst her husband and child are stuck in a storm. Both stories offer vivid details about the experiences these women go through, but which character is the most believable?

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The grandmother is selfish throughout Flannery O’Connor’s short story and the author displays it many times during the story. Grandmother is an older lady who only cares about herself and her appearance. She insists that she always dressed her best in case a tragedy were to

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The somber lighting surrounding the story becomes increasingly darker as the story progresses. By doing so, it gives a sense of foreboding that once the light is extinguished, something dreadful will manifest. This may be a reference to the souring relationship between Julian and his mother. Julian for instance is “cut emotionally free” from his mother. The “dying violet”

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As Harry matured, he and his father grew apart, and Harry no longer visited his father’s candy shop after school. His father would always gaze out the window and watch as his son glanced at him, but Harry never entered the shop. When Mr. Tillian had to go to the hospital, Harry watched over the shop and his father’s parrot. Harry discovered how much his father cared about him when the parrot repeated, “Miss

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Aunt Clara is seen as a positive figure at the beginning of the novel because she is a mother-like figure for George and Lennie and provides a further background of their relationship. She signifies that Lennie did, in fact, have nurturing upbringing, despite his mental disorders, as George says to Lennie, “she gave you a rubber mouse” when he kept asking for mice to pet. Although Aunt Clara is seen as a positive authority figure since she is the kin to George and Lennie, by the end of the novel one can note Aunt Clara tormenting Lennie while he is in abject misery after strangling Curley’s wife. In Lennie’s hallucinations, Aunt Clara says, “But you don’t never take no care. You do bad things” and “All the time he coulda had such a good time if it wasn’t for you”.

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