The Jilting of Granny Weatherall By Katherine Anne Porter

Abstract
      Granny Weatherall is in the hospital and nearing death. She is very grumpy and doesn't want anyone around. As she falls asleep she starts to see her life go by and how was was never really a happy person. In the end Granny is at peace with dying and tells her children all they things they must do and the items they receive after her death.


Journal

In the story, “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” there isn’t much of a plot. It seems as though we are just hearing the thoughts that Granny Weatherall is thinking while laying in a hospital bed. She is a cranky lady who doesn’t want to be at the hospital because she’d rather be at home cleaning and doing other chores.

            The characters of the story kind of confuse me on why they are even in the story except for George and Hapsy. I think that George is significant to this story because not only was Granny jilted by him it represents how her life was lived. She was never really happy and at the end of the story she realizes that. She was jilted by this thought and that’s what ended up killing her. Hapsy was another character that was important to the story and showed up in many instances. I’m not quite sure the actual significance of Hapsy, I just know that Granny loved her very much.

            The tone of the story is very dark and unhappy feeling. I feel this closely relates to the life that Katherine Anne Porter lived. When she was young her mother died and her father raised her family. Once Katherine grew up she married a man who abused her and they later got divorced. I think the reason for this writing to be dark and unhappy is also because she wants to depict that life of Granny and the stage that she was going through in her life, and that she had to accept death.

            One of the symbols in the story that you see throughout is the expression of things floating. This can relate to what heaven is like in Katherine Anne Porter’s eyes. She talks about how the doctor floats into the ceiling in the beginning and that her body feels like bones just floating about within her skin. This truly shows that Granny knows she’s dying and that the thought of death makes her think everything in real life is floating and converted to the way of heaven.