The Jilting Of Granny Weatherall

2 Pages 589 Words

“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 María Concepción. 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 “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...