Free Essays on The Jilting Of Granny Weatherall

â€Å"The Jilting of Granny Weatherall† Katherine Anne Porter lived during a rough time in the world, which included both of the world wars and the Great Depression. She was born in Indian Creek, Texas in 1890 and was a descendant of Daniel Boone. She considered that the better part of her education came from five authors, they were Henry James, T. S. Elliot, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, and W. B. Yeats. She began writing when she was young but was not able to publish anything until she was forty; at this time she published Marà ­a Concepcià ³n. After that, she produced several other important works, however she only wrote one novel, Ship of Fools. Most of her stories took place in the South and showed characters in relationships with family. They generally took place at pivotal moments in the characters lives and included some type of flashback for the characters. This is true of The Jilting of Granny Weatherall too. Some scientists and memory experts believe that every experience is recorded in the mind. People who had a near death experience have said that they saw their life pass before them. This is also part of many religions as the â€Å"final judgment†. Porter uses this replay of life’s events as the foundation of Granny Weatherall’s situation. This short story takes place on the evening of Granny Weatherall’s death. Porter effectively shows the inner confusion of Granny and the intense emotion of family members around her. The mechanism she used to perform this task was her famous use of flashbacks. Here, Granny Weatherall goes through a series of disconnected memories in connection with a stream of consciousness. Using this technique Porter creates the confusion of the situation. This technique alone foreshadows the ending of this piece just by the fact that Granny Weatherall is recounting events in her past as one does when death is approaching. Granny’s thoughts drift back to times in her past and reveal the m... Free Essays on The Jilting Of Granny Weatherall Free Essays on The Jilting Of Granny Weatherall â€Å"The Jilting of Granny Weatherall† Katherine Anne Porter lived during a rough time in the world, which included both of the world wars and the Great Depression. She was born in Indian Creek, Texas in 1890 and was a descendant of Daniel Boone. She considered that the better part of her education came from five authors, they were Henry James, T. S. Elliot, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, and W. B. Yeats. She began writing when she was young but was not able to publish anything until she was forty; at this time she published Marà ­a Concepcià ³n. After that, she produced several other important works, however she only wrote one novel, Ship of Fools. Most of her stories took place in the South and showed characters in relationships with family. They generally took place at pivotal moments in the characters lives and included some type of flashback for the characters. This is true of The Jilting of Granny Weatherall too. Some scientists and memory experts believe that every experience is recorded in the mind. People who had a near death experience have said that they saw their life pass before them. This is also part of many religions as the â€Å"final judgment†. Porter uses this replay of life’s events as the foundation of Granny Weatherall’s situation. This short story takes place on the evening of Granny Weatherall’s death. Porter effectively shows the inner confusion of Granny and the intense emotion of family members around her. The mechanism she used to perform this task was her famous use of flashbacks. Here, Granny Weatherall goes through a series of disconnected memories in connection with a stream of consciousness. Using this technique Porter creates the confusion of the situation. This technique alone foreshadows the ending of this piece just by the fact that Granny Weatherall is recounting events in her past as one does when death is approaching. Granny’s thoughts drift back to times in her past and reveal the m... Free Essays on The Jilting Of Granny Weatherall Granny Weatherall, the main character in Katherine Anne Porter’s The Jilting of Granny Weatherall, is an 80-year-old elderly woman who is at the doorstep of death. There is a sense of disillusionment with Granny that leads readers to develop their own interpretation of her relationship with Cornelia, her daughter. As the narrator, Granny unknowingly would paint the picture of Cornelia as nuisance and bothersome. In fact, the reader can rationalize that it is just Cornelia’s concern for an ailing mother that creates the situation of her seemingly being there all the time. Granny is having mental flashbacks as death approaches like â€Å"a fog rose over the valley† (1296). Granny recalls events throughout her life, from being left at the altar on her wedding day, to losing a child, to coming to grips with her own death as the story reaches a close. All of these recollections and the realization of her death bring together the great ironies of the story, ironies whi ch cause not one, but two jiltings for Granny. As you read the story, the first irony becomes apparent. On her deathbed, the memory of a love lost which has been suppressed for 60 years resurfaces. It is magnified in such a way showing that though she had tried to forget George, her former fiancà ©e, she had never actually forgotten him. â€Å"Find him and be sure to tell him I forgot him† (1298), are the words Granny speaks to create the irony. She reminisces about the wedding day and being left standing at the altar. This recollection causes her to start making profound statements about, â€Å"Don’t let things get lost† and â€Å"it’s bitter to lose things† (1297). Though she never says directly why she has these thoughts, the reader understands that she has this appreciation because of her loss, which was not marrying George. Yes, she had a nice life with John, whom she married and had children with, but there was always the thought of what might have been had George be... Free Essays on The Jilting Of Granny Weatherall â€Å"A Test of Character† â€Å"The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,† a short story by Katherine Anne Porter, describes the last thoughts, feelings, and memories of an elderly woman. As Granny Weatherall’s life literally â€Å"flashes† before her eyes, the importance of the title of the story becomes obvious. Granny Weatherall has been in some way deceived or disappointed in every love relationship of her life. Her past lover George, husband John, daughter Cornelia, and God all did an injustice by what Porter refers to as â€Å"jilting.† This unending cycle of wrongdoing caused Granny to be a mixture of strength, bitterness, and ultimate fear as she faces her last moments in life. Granny gained her strength by the people that she felt jilted by. George stood Granny up at the altar. He never showed at all and it is never stated that she heard from him again. The pain forced Granny to be strong as is proven by her thoughts when she is asked if anything could be done for her. â€Å" I want you to find George. Find him and be sure to tell him I forgot him. I want him to know I had my husband just the same and my children and my house like any other woman†¦ Tell him I was given back everything he took away and more† (Porter 584). Granny did marry a man named John, but her strength was again tested when he died at a young age, leaving her to raise their children on her own. â€Å"Sometimes she wanted to see John again and point to them and say, well, I didn’t do so badly did I?† (582). She had been...