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The jilting of granny weatherall essay
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall (By Katherine Anne Porter
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall (By Katherine Anne Porter
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“Jilting” Essay In the short story “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”, Porter uses imagery, dialogue and figurative language to show the reader the development of the complex emotions of Granny as she is dying. Porter does this by using descriptive language, different tone of voices, and similes. Porter uses many examples of imagery in this story. For example, Granny thought “It was good to be strong enough for everything, even if all you made melted and changed and slipped under your hands,”.
The Rebelling Belle in Katherine Anne Porter’s Old Mortality When one hears about the American South, one of the first things that come to mind is the Southern Belle. With their elegant dresses and their unmistakable charm, the belles have definitely left their mark on history. But were all the belles accepting their position within the Southern society?
‘ In the story entitled “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” Granny finds herself approaching death. Even though she believes she is just fine, minute details lead the reader to believe she is rather ill: “she meant to wave good-by, but it was too much trouble” and by the end of the story, she is too weak to speak, “[s]he thought she spoke up loudly, but no one answered. The story follows Granny as she reflects on her life, including the jilting for which the story is named. By the end of the tale, Granny is fastly approaching death and sees her dead daughter waiting for her. When looking at this story from the lens of literary techniques, the ones chosen give the story a unique flavor.
Character is one of the elements of fiction that Porter uses to illustrate how humans wish to have total control over their lives. The character of Granny Weatherall is the central figure in this story, and her experiences and thoughts reflect the common experiences of aging and death that are faced by many individuals. Porter brings this to the reader’s attention when she writes, “When she was sixty she had felt very old, finished, and went around making farewell trips to see her children and grandchildren, with a secret in her mind: This is the very last of your mother, children” (82)! Granny Weatherall is portrayed as a strong and independent woman who has lived a long life filled with both triumphs and failures.
In this time, a woman is nothing without a man; however, Granny Weatherall perseveres, defies the odds, and makes a healthy and happy life for herself, her new husband, and eventually her children. An important symbol in this story is Granny Weatherall’s lighting of the lamps. As the fog “[swallowed] the trees and [moved] up the hill like an army of ghosts…it was time to go in and light the lamps” (Porter 4). This event is symbolic because the lighting of the lamp signifies the coming of darkness. On her deathbed, the lighting of the lamps, figuratively, paves a path for her children so they “didn’t have to be scared and hang on to mother anymore” (Porter 4).
The concept of death is a concept that most, if not, all humans fear. Yet, in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie sees death differently; she doesn’t only view death in fear. We humans desire to live our lives and accomplish our dreams as does Janie who accomplishes her vision of love in her relationship with Tea Cake. She, however, is a unique kind of human among us and sees beyond the humane fear of death. The way Hurston utilizes fragmentation to unification in Janie creates a movement within her to perceive death not with fear but with acceptance.
"The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" is an unusual narrative that tells of the last thoughts of a dying woman. With each sentence the reader can very seemingly see how the main character, Granny, starts to forget major events in her life and lose grasp of whats going on around her. As the story is in Granny 's point of view, the audience is very limited in the knowledge they have of the story, however at times when Granny has flashbacks the text changes to a third person point of view. Granny 's character is the portrayal of a strong and determined single mother who was left a widow after her husband, John, died. Despite being on her death bed Granny feels as if she just fell ill of a common cold and believes she would be better in a few days.
The short story of The Jilting of Granny Weatherall by Katherine Anne Porter, conveys life more than death. Granny is dying throughout the story as she thinks about her life when she was younger and healthy. Therefore, the story makes one more focused on her life and what she has gone through. The story does not convey death and how she is slowly dying. Granny signals death by speaking of certain events like, “John, get the Doctor now, Hapsy’s time has come.
“The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” recounts the tragic experiences that Granny Weatherall experienced throughout her life and faced once again towards the end. The theme revolves around the term “jilting,” which is defined as an act of abandonment with no warning. People had jilted her twice, with each being a complete surprise. Aside from these two serious instances, she also faced other terrible life experiences as well. Katherine Anne Porter’s composition includes numerous literary elements, such as symbols and irony, but most notably a theme.
She states, ”Her heart sank down and down, there was no bottom to death, she couldn’t come to the end of it.” This third person quote describes how Granny’s death is approaching quickly, but also contradicts itself by taking forever to near. At this point in the story, Granny wants to die, but death won’t approach. Granny is waiting for her death to arrive. Later in the story, Porter states, “...Her body was now only a deeper mass of shadow in an endless darkness, and this darkness would curl around the light and swallow it up.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall by Katherine Ann Porter gives an insight to Ellen’s last day of life while she flashes between reality and the hardships she has faced throughout it. She mentions a tormenting memory of being left at the altar and her fear of being jilted by others including God. After reminiscing earlier parts of her life, she is doubtful about whether her life and dreams has been fulfilled. At the end Ellen was alone to blow out her candle, forming the idea of there being no God.
A person's last moments can tell you more about them than you'd imagine. You might discover how scared they are, or how ready they are to meet their creator. In Katherine Anne Porter's "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" (rpt. in Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sounds, and Sense, 11th ed. [Boston: Wadsworth, 2012] 286-294), Granny is viewed as a manipulative and strong character as she attempts to hide secrets from her family up until even her last moments causing her strained relationship with God.
When Dickinson was young she thought of death as a kind, peaceful gentleman. She elaborates on this idea in her poem “Because I could not Stop for Death”, “Because I could not stop for Death/ He kindly stopped for me/ We slowly drove - He knew no haste,” Emily Dickinson uses the personification of Death in a way that bears resemblance to a classy, peaceful gentleman who is willing to slowly guide and patiently wait for a lady. Her wording also gives the connotation that she is young and in love with this gentle Death. This idea abruptly turns into hatred when she loses her parents.
In the poem “Because I could not stop for death” by Emily Dickinson, death is described as a person, and the narrator is communicating her journey with death in the afterlife. During the journey the speaker describes death as a person to accompany her during this journey. Using symbolism to show three locations that are important part of our lives. The speaker also uses imagery to show why death isn 't’ so scary.
In “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”, Emily Dickinson uses imagery and symbols to establish the cycle of life and uses examples to establish the inevitability of death. This poem describes the speaker’s journey to the afterlife with death. Dickinson uses distinct images, such as a sunset, the horses’ heads, and the carriage ride to establish the cycle of life after death. Dickinson artfully uses symbols such as a child, a field of grain, and a sunset to establish the cycle of life and its different stages. Dickinson utilizes the example of the busyness of the speaker and the death of the sun to establish the inevitability of death.
