Merciless Death in Katherine Anne Porter's The Jilting of Granny Weatherall

Two more pertinent points are made by the author, in regards to the grandmother, follow in quick succession; both allude to further yet-to-be seen gloom within the story. O’Connor writes of the grandmother “[s]he didn’t intend for the cat to be left alone in the house for three days because he would miss her too much and she was afraid he might brush against one of the gas burners and accidentally asphyxiate himself” (1043) and of the way she is dressed “[i]n case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (1043). These two observations are innocent enough on the surface but provide true intent on the foreshadowing that O’Connor uses throughout the story. It is these two devices, irony and foreshadowing, that I feel are prominent and important aspects of the story and are evidenced in my quest to decipher this story.

She intentionally lies about the house having a secret panel just to get the kids interest so that Bailey would be more likely to stop and visit. The grandmother is also portrayed as being very loud and outgoing. When the family stops at the restaurant, she carries on a conversation with a complete stranger. She also wants to get up and dance.

Weird. If the relationship between the characters of Grandpa and Grandma could be described in one word, it would be weird. Then again, Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a shining example of everything unconventional, exploring the nuances of grief through multiple and varying perspectives, each with a unique approach that attempts to achieve recovery and solace. The relationship of Grandpa and Grandma is an example of one such attempt at recovery, one that tries desperately to reconcile past traumas, yet ultimately acts as a futile effort that harbors more grief and denial.

The final theme of memory is shown as Granny weaves in and out of reality and memories of her past. She seems to find strength from being left at the alter and then finds comfort in the memories of her late husband, John, and her children. The memories of the other man make her a bit uneasy with thoughts that her children would find the letters in the attic. There is one moment that she actually wants to tell her daughter to find George and “be sure and tell him I forgot him.”

She tries to backer her demands by inducing herself and her family that her way is the most perfect way and positively the primary way. The grandmother is dead situated to change her family's escape objective as she tries to control her kid into taking off to Tennessee as opposed to Florida. She began endeavoring to make Bailey, her tyke, feel remorseful about the adolescents' wellbeing. The grandmother says that "she couldn't answer to her spirit in case she took the youths in a heading where there was a convict allowed to move around freely. " She is not productive with Bailey, so she uses the same tomfooleries on her young lady in-law who doesn't even remember her.

Janie’s grandmother takes notice of her awakening of love and wants to immediately set Janie up for marriage with a rich yet older man named Logan Killicks. Janie’s grandmother represents the value of the American Dream, and she attempts to cast this idea onto Janie by having her marry a man that will provide for her so that she may live a more secure life. Janie’s grandmother says, “Ah don’t want no trashy [N-word], no breath-and-britches, lak Johnny Taylor usin’ yo’ body to wipe his foots on” (Hurston 13). Janie’s grandmother associates a man of lower social class as not fit for Janie, and she says, “De [N-word] woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see. Ah been prayin’ fuh it tuh be different wid you. Lawd, Lawd, Lawd!” (Hurston 14). Janie’s grandmother simply wants success, security, and safety for Janie, and she wants Janie’s purpose in life to be the achievement of the American Dream. In many ways, a parallel may be drawn between Janie’s grandmother and Dan Cody from The Great Gatsby. Both of these characters influence their younger counterparts to give purpose and meaning to their lives through the pursuit of wealth and financial

The reader can deduce that the grandmother give significant importance to looking “nice” and “respectable” for her clothes. These words can demonstrate it: “Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her necklace she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet.” If the grandmother will die, she has to be a “lady” until the last minute. Additionally, she represents a classical lady in the pass where the kind of family determinates your status and behaviors.

First published in 1929, "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" appeared at the end of a period of relative prosperity in America and the beginning of what was to become the Great Depression. For women in particular, many new opportunities and roles were available. During the war, when many young men had left to fight in Europe, more women had entered the traditionally male worlds of work and higher education. In fields ranging from fashion to politics to literature, a new generation of women were expressing themselves with new levels of confidence. Granny Weatherall was a product of this new confidence. Granny has demonstrated all her life that she is an independent and pragmatic woman who does what needs to be done with or without a man. Mostly, she appears better off without a man. This statement represents the feeling of women in the 1920s, preferably Porter herself. By taking a look at Porter's life before the story was published in 1929

He only has a vague idea of the hardships she went through, by listening to the stories she told about her own childhood, she spoke of “Mexico, epidemics, relatives shot, her father’s hopes, of this country---how they sank” (lines 38-43). He still hears “echo of her shuffling” feet when he visits the old house (line 51). He views his grandmother as role model, for her patience and fortitude in the face of

Small community settings in both “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” and “A Rose for Emily”

The story seemed to be about an old lady on her death bed living with her daughter. It was evident that granny was dying, but she would not admit it. Her husband was John, but George stood her up at the altar. She was cared for by Cornelia, and visited by her doctor regularly. Her favorite child was Hapsy who had died at a young age. As granny was dying she kept hallucinating about John and George and her children. The author did a good job of using literary elements to express herself. Flashback is used a lot as she is dying. Hyperbole was also used when the author described her bones floating. Simile was also used a lot, an example of this is when "Cornelia's voice staggered and jumped like a cart." In the end the old lady ended up dying.

My Grandmother Fowler epitomized the characterization of an ordinary Southern, hardworking, farm woman. She was thin, brown from the sun even though she always wore long sleeves outside, and always dresses as her religion dictated. Her hair was steel grey, and would have reached her waist if she hadn’t made the weekly trip to Ms. Rose Tully’s Beauty Parlor to have her hair washed and pulled up into a lacquered bun.

None of them got along from arguing all day to never agreeing on anything, but it was clear that the grandmother was the odd one out. When thinking of a grandmother you may expect them to be joyful and ecstatic. However, this was not the case with this grandmother, she could not even settle on a place to go for vacation, let alone just being happy for once. Later in the story, the murderer on the loose, the Misfit had the family go into the dark forest and had the grandmother stand out in the cloudless sunny day. It symbolized the grandmother’s personality as if it “came to the light”. Oddly, he seemed to be the only one that caught on to her relentless act of being “pure”, “She would have been a good woman … if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (O’Connor, 242). In other words, this is ironic coming from a murderer talking about an old lady. Nonetheless, it does make someone think twice about her authenticity and who she may really compare

Womanhood is known to come with inherent responsibilities. They are not only valued as submissive partners to their significant other, they have a greater purpose. Woman are known for their dutifulness and being able to take on the tasks that man has delegated to them such as maintaining a household, taking care of finances and being hosts in society. Moreover, it was also their duty to be fit wives and mothers to children to continue on the family line. However, as women age, their usefulness seems to decline with them. Older women are seen as an ineffectual presence in society. They no loner hold their beauty that might fetch them a decent husband, they can no longer bear children that continue the family lineage, and they cannot take on the tremendous responsibilities that they once did. This is only a stereotype that haunts older woman. Women of age hold so much more dimension than being called "useless". The older generation of woman should be credited with the ability to survive and grow, not only physically, but mentally, and become wise patrons in a society that could use their advice and experience.

The words Kezia speaks to the grandmother are the words Mansfield wish she could have disclosed to her brother. Through Kezia, Mansfield sets the emotion state and the contemplations that go through her mind. Mansfield analyzes the different families at the bay. Linda the mother is sitting there staring at a leaf going down memory lane to the day she met her now husband. Visualizing their life together, today she looks at her husband and her three children Lottie, Kezia, and Isabel. The grandmother knitting away. This story symbolizes the remembrance of her brother and the good times they had before he died.