Essay The Jilting Of Granny Weatherall and A Worn Path

The story of A Worn Path goes perfectly with the title; it is a slow paced mood with lots of symbolic messages associated with life. Phoenix Jackson is just representation of one person reaching a simple goal but for her may take a little more effort. Bound by her physical ailments of being old, slow, and brittle she never turns back giving up her goal. Through the symbolic obstacles that author Eudora Welty so cleverly puts together, puts a sense of what everyone goes through in life. Eudora Welty brings forth a theme; with enough persistence and boldness we can overcome any obstacle that we face and reach our goal. As we go through our life no matter what circumstances we may be in, there should be nothing that keeps us from achieving. Just like Phoenix Jackson she works towards a goal so important to her heart; she doesn’t let any obstacle come in her way.

The main characters in both short stories were symbolic for their great lives. Granny Weatherall is described as an old lady who is confined to bed by sickness and still very stubborn at her age. She denies the fact that she is sick and calls herself a “well woman” even though she knows she is on her death bed. On the other hand, Phoenix Jackson is an old African American woman who is an illiterate that

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.”

When you compare the two books they have a very similar tone. Though the locations different they still connect through the same tone. Phoenix Jackson is on a trail walking to town to buy some medicine for her Grandson, while Miss Emily is locked up in her house with a dead man. If you were to not focus as much on the location and put your attention to their state of mind then you can see that they are in the same atmosphere. The tone in A Worn Path is for Phoenix to accomplish the task of getting medicine for her grandchild, while the reader can look at the path as the challenges of her life. Miss Emily on the other hand is just looking to not be so alone. They both know that if they set their mind to their goal then they can accomplish anything they wish to. The theme is slightly different however. Miss Emily and Phoenix both have goals, but in A Worn Path Phoenix?s life is portrayed so much by the path itself. The path in the story tells the life of Phoenix. While Miss Emily is just a woman who sits at home and does not go out in public too often, she just wants to

Another aspect of the story that stood out to me was the title. I kept asking myself, “Why did Porter pick Weatherall to be Granny’s name and why was she jilted?” Soon the answer came to me. She picked Weatherall because granny had “weathered-it-all”. She had seen, been, and lived through many

He just left five minutes ago." (p.1490) Later on, she continues her denial when Cornelia calls on a priest to offer Granny her last rights. When the priest arrives, she would not speak to him. She said, "I went to Holy Communion only last week. Tell him I’m not so sinful as all that." (1491) As Granny’s life was winding down with only minutes remaining, she finally began to show signs that she accepted what was happening to her. She bagan remembering those who were important to her and dividing her possesions among family members. Porter shows a loving side to Granny Weatherall that endears her to the audience before she is wisked away from the land of the living. It is reminiscint of The Flannery O’Connor story "A Good Man is Hard to Find." The Misfit has just executed a fast-talking grandmother. One of his evil cohorts offers that she was "a real talker." The Misfit interjects that "She would have been a good woman if it had been somebody to shoot her every minute of her life." So it is with Granny Weatherall, at her best while near the bitter end. The Jilting of Granny Weatherall gives us a brief overview of mortality. Porter gives us slightly deeper insight into self pity and the acceptance of death. Granny Weatherall’s actions and thoughts give the reader an idea of how it feels as life draws to a close. Porter suggests that by succeeding in dying well, one can leave

Ultimately, Granny Weatherall shows herself to be an independant and strong-willed woman. However, "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" does not focus on Granny's exterior beng, but rather her interior thoughts and emotions. This personal and in-depth characterization of Granny reveals that her need to be completely independant is the result of being abandoned at an altar by a man she loved. As a young adult, Granny let down her guard in order to communicate her unadulterated love for George. The act of George rejecting Granny's vulnerability caused her intense pain, leaving her "blind and sweating with nothing under her feet and the walls falling away."

After she takes a nap in a ditch a hunter comes by and helps her but ends up threatening her with his gun.  Danger can come from anywhere, as the hunter shows in this instance, but Phoenix does a good job of taking care of the dangers and not getting hurt herself.

He knocks her over, and a hunter comes to help her up. Even though the hunter is helpful, he is somewhat threatening. He then drops a nickel in which Phoenix picks it up without him noticing. Then he points a gun at her, and she stood straight and faced him when he did so. When he asked if she was afraid of the gun, she replied, "No, sir, I seen plenty go off closer by, in my day, and for less than what I done" (DiYanni). The hunter even replied that she is scared of nothing, and she goes on her way. "Her perception of these obstacles emphasizes her intense physical, mental, and moral effort to complete this journey" (Heller). Phoenix is brave physically because she had to climb over logs, through thorn bushes, and a barbed-wire fence. She is brave mentally, because she can stay calm while in stressful situations like having a gun pointed to her face. She really cares about her grandson, and that motivates her to stay strong for him and to make it through these rough

The themes can be interpreted similarly; both poems are telling people to live life to the fullest. “Lucinda Matlock” is an example of what life could be if one really wants to enjoy it, but “George Gray” is an example of what not to do in life. George eventually realizes that he cannot be scared to be outgoing if he wants to enjoy life; he wants the life Lucinda lives. George is too terrified to go after it. These two poems describe two foil characters. They have a similar basis, but they are mostly opposites. These differences are what makes the themes similar. Another similarity in these poems is the titles. The titles, which are also the people’s names, describe the lives they led. Lucinda is a unique and different name and so was her life. George is a basic, common name, and Gray describes his dull and gloomy

On the surface, William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily and Katherine Ann Porter’s The Jilting of Granny Weatherall do not give the feeling of having any resemblances. After reading both stories, both the protagonist showed a lot of similarities. In other words, the plots, settings, and themes can be different, Miss Emily and Granny Weatherall have similar, yet different personalities which allows them to handle their similar situations differently. They are both independent women, awfully stubborn, and a man plays an important role in both their lives.

The main moral in “A Worn Path” is the love, and life of Phoenix Jackson. “Though quite old and suffering from infirmities, Phoenix Jackson regularly walks a long distance to obtain medicine for her grandchild. Even in cold weather, when the frozen earth is slippery, she makes the trip. Her journey—the worn path she follows.” (Welty ) The path she travels

The story is about an elderly African American woman who goes on a journey on a road in a small town area to get medicine for her grandson. She expresses herself through her surrounding, her language, and talking about the pain she feels in her old fragile bones. This shows that "A Worn Path" is a story of love and determination that pushes Phoenix toward a goal.

The story, “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Katherine Anne Porter, was about a sick elderly woman recalling occasion from her life before she dies. Granny Weatherall is the main character of the story who is about eighty years old and is on her deathbed. She remembrances events from her life such as how she was jilted at the alter and how her husband dies young. George was the man who left Granny alone at the altar. John her husband died young, leaving her with many children to care for. Cornelia the daughter of Granny was the primary caretaker of her, she was very loving and caring for her mother. Doctor Harry is the doctor looking after Granny, but he talks to her in a condescending way. Porter writes “I’d have you respect your elders,

The snapping back to reality aspect of the story parallels the theme of the eventual failure of denial, and reflects the events Granny Weatherall is recalling. As she lapses into thinking about her typical course of action during a thunderstorm from when