Summary Of ' Giggling Granny '

Joann Murray’s essay on “Someone’s Mother,” describes a time when she was driving down the highway in Albany, coming from a dentist appointment when she spotted a hitchhiker. Now this is nothing unusual for hitchhikers to be on this highway but it was something about this one that captured Joan’s attention. She was half way down the road but her intuition made her make a U-turn and go back. Another reason she turned around is because the lady would not stop waving until she stopped. This hitchhiker was different from most hitchhikers, she had on a raincoat and a black hat and her hair was white. As Joan approached her, she could tell that she was an old lady. She was under the impression the old lady’s vehicle had broken down but there was no vehicle in sight. The lady informed Joan that she just needed a ride to “Nassau, which was three miles away. While riding down the road she found out the lady was ninety two years old and was apparently was “out for a walk.” The old lady begged Joan to drop her off at a drugstore in town instead of at her residence. This made Joan reminisce about the time when her ninety year old mother called her brother and said she did not remember how to get dressed anymore. Shortly after that, Joan had to put her mother in a nursing home. Joan began to realize the lady had been lost before, especially after seeing a white dove pinned to her collar. The older lady expressed dropping her off at

One evening, Queenie Volupides had a quarrel with her husband Arthur and went off to the local country club where a party was ongoing. She departed the club just before one o’clock in the morning with a few friends to have another drink at her place. Queenie however, arrived ten minutes earlier and when her friends arrived, she stated that “Something terrible happened. Arthur slipped and fell on the stairs. He was coming down for another drink - he still had the glass in his hand --- and I think he’s dead. Oh, my God --- what shall I do?” The autopsy conducted later concluded that Arthur died from a wound on the head and confirmed that he’d been drunk.

     In "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall," Katherine Anne Porter gives readers a glimpse of the thoughts of a woman about to die.  Lying in her bed in her daughter Cornelia's house, eighty-year-old Granny Weatherall drifts in and out of consciousness.  Through her thoughts of events both current and bygone, it is learned that Granny has worked hard all her life, and frequently tells herself that she did a good job.  She thinks of events that made her stronger: digging holes for fence posts, "riding country roads in the winter when women had their babies" (311), taking care of sick animals and sick children.  Though Granny Weatherall tries to assure herself that her life has been

In “The Story of an Hour” we see Mrs. Louise Mallard receives news of the death of her husband. The

The daughter in law of the ranch’s owner, which we will refer as Curley’s wife from now on, was killed instantly by a fatal injury to the neck caused by a retarded worker, Lennie. Born with talents of acting, Curley’s wife was invited to an audition by a famous Hollywood director at the age of eighteen. Unfortunately, her mother turned down the audition for her, due to unclear reasons. She then married to Curley, the son of the ranch’s owner, and lived on the ranch until her death. From the workers on the ranch, we learned that Curley’s wife was very lonely

Every kid growing up has a role model, mine happening to be Michael Jordan. In “Behind Grandma’s House” Gary Soto informs us about an event of a 10-year-old kid who wants two things, to be famous, and to be tough. These two characteristic probably come from something that the kid saw on television or on movies and now wants to go out and mimic the people in the movies. Soto’s use of imagery and descriptions in “Behind Grandma’s House” paints me a perfect picture of how the narrator attempts to portray a famous tough guy.

On July 4, 1954, Sheppard’s family invited Ahern’s family for dinner. Don and Nancy Ahern and their two children joined Sheppard family for casual dinner. Ahern family is a neighbour of Sheppard’s family. After the dinner, Nancy’s two children fallen to sleep and Don dropped those kid in his house and he came back to Sheppard’s house. Meanwhile, Marilyn Sheppard drop off his child to upstair to the bed, Samuel Reese Sheppard. Sheppard’s family and Nancy’s family watched a film together. As Marilyn tried to sleep on Sam’s lap, he felt tired from working all day, so he got up and went to his couch to take a nap. Later on that night, Marilyn was beaten to death. There were 35 curved gashes on her body.

In the poem “Behind Grandma’s House,” written by Gary Soto, a young boy struggles to behave and suppress outbursts of bad behavior. “In the alley, kicking over trash cans,” (li. 6). The boy practically terrorizes the rest of his neighborhood. “And wanted to prove I was tough” (li. 5). The boy wants to prove he is tough to compensate for something he is lacking on the inside. Emotionally the boy lacks something, he tries to make up for this by creating an outward appearance of roughness. Terrorizing his neighborhood is public confirmation of his rough and tough act. The boy’s grandma has a solution to his bad behavior. “Her hair mussed, and said, ‘Let me help you,’/And punched me between the eyes” (li. 20-21). The boy’s grandma turns to hard

Nannie would later attribute her desire to kill men to many things. The first being when she hit her head on a train ride, which consequently caused her to have major blackouts, and small bouts of depressions throughout the rest of her life. She also attributed the poisoning of her husbands, as her search for true romance. Since she was a child, she found refuge in her mother’s romance magazines, frequently dreaming about her future love life, and what it entitled. Once married to a man, if he didn’t fulfill her dreams, he would “accidentally” ingest rat poison.

Queenie Valupides got into an argument with her husband, Arthur, and went off to the country club. She left the club at almost one in the morning, inviting a few of her friends over for one more drink. Queenie arrived at her house, her friends arriving ten minutes after. She met them at the door, claiming Arthur slipped and fell down the stairs while going to get another drink and that he was dead. The autopsy concluded that he was drunk and died from a head wound. Queenie’s story might seem to be true, but she is lying.

In this short story of "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" by Katherine Anne Porter, there is a powerful symbolic meaning through out the entire narrative. Although the symbols are not obvious in some paragraphs, they are in hidden text in others, which has to be, examined thoroughly by the reader. Granny is an eighty-year-old woman on her deathbed. She is in a state of confusion drifting in and out of consciences; she is reminiscing and blurring the past with the present. Although she comes to her senses every now and then, she is still perplexing some important details of her life. Through this story, all the symbols help define Granny's character, provide greater understanding of her life, and reinforces the important parts of

While Mrs. Hale rants about the invasion of Mrs. Wright’s home, Mrs. Peters states, “the law is the law” (10). She easily demonstrates her submissiveness and inability to break free from societal standards. While defending the men throughout the story, she reveals the dilemma she is faced from being the sheriff’s wife and also a woman herself. By saying “a person gets discouraged—and loses heart” (10) Mrs. Peters sets a grim mood not only relating to Mrs. Wright, but towards herself. Stuck in a systematic routine, Mrs. Peters is a delicate creature confined in an arched

Finally, the reader is introduced to the character around whom the story is centered, the accursed murderess, Mrs. Wright. She is depicted to be a person of great life and vitality in her younger years, yet her life as Mrs. Wright is portrayed as one of grim sameness, maintaining a humorless daily grind, devoid of life as one regards it in a normal social sense. Although it is clear to the reader that Mrs. Wright is indeed the culprit, she is portrayed sympathetically because of that very lack of normalcy in her daily routine. Where she was once a girl of fun and laughter, it is clear that over the years she has been forced into a reclusive shell by a marriage to a man who has been singularly oppressive. It is equally clear that she finally was brought to her personal breaking point, dealing with her situation in a manner that was at once final and yet inconclusive, depending on the outcome of the legal investigation. It is notable that regardless of the outcome, Mrs. Wright had finally realized a state of peace within herself, a state which had been denied her for the duration of her relationship with the deceased.

While the court attorney and the sheriff looked for obvious clues to put Mrs. Wright behind bars, the women were looking for things no man would care to look for. Mrs. Wright asked the women to check on her fruit and gather some things for her. When the men left to finish up their investigation, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters started to converse about what they thought happened and if they think Mrs. Wright could actually kill her husband. Mrs. Hale didn’t like the fact that the men came in criticizing her friend’s home. She said “I’d hate to have men coming into my kitchen, snooping around and criticising.”

Year old son Peter died of dysentery way too much for his wife Dorothy whose mental health died away rapidly. She had delusions accusing William of all kinds of horrible things and threating him using a knife. She eventually had