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Comparing Death in The Jilting of Granny Weatherall and A Worn Path
Death is not something to be feared, but faced with awe. Although, by nature, aging and death are merely facts of life; a loss of hope, the frustration of all aspirations, a leap into a great darkness, and the feelings of fear and anguish. Phoneix Jackson of Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" and Granny of Katherine Anne Porter's "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" face these inevitable signs of aging and death.
Phoenix Jackson, an old Negro lady, haltingly struggles with her age while walking through the woods and fields on her way to town. "Seem like there is chains about my feet, time I get this far." Phoenix Jackson walks a worn path and overcomes obstacles and adversity to reach her goal. "She carried a thin, small cane made from an umbrella, and with this she kept tapping the frozen earth in front of her." The fact that she kept persistently tapping the earth in front of her could only indicate that she was visually impaired. She may not have been completely blind, but she had to have been substantially impaired ...
In “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Katherine Anne Porter, we learn of an elderly woman who is lying on her death bed watching her life pass before her eyes. We learn, from these flashbacks, how much she has overcome and endured, and how she's put her whole heart into being a mother and wife up until her last breath, when she blew out the candle and rode with her Father in a cart to heaven. It’s this very reason why Porter, in my opinion, chose Granny as the narrator of this story; so we could see the story through her eyes, being able to relate and appreciate it better.
There is Phoenix Jackson she is a grandmother who always travels a long and horrible path that she takes in order to get her grandson medicine for him. Ms. Jackson is an older lady who is traveling in the middle of December “She was a very old and small and she walked slowly in the dark pine shadows”. (Welty) While traveling in the woods Ms. Jackson gets tangled in a bush where here dress gets tangled but after she finally gets herself free she finally gets to the foot of the hill where she rests. Many of the events that happened in this story is not the normal that we have for today. For instance what older woman would go walking into the cold woods in December by herself and keeps walking until she is completely tired. While she is in the woods Ms. Jackson encounters a black dog that trips her and made her fall into a ditch. When the hunter who was with the dog came he helped her up and told her she needs to go back home instead if going into town. When the hunter helped her a nickel fell out of his pocket, when he left she picked it up and put it in her apron, once the hunter came back he pointed a gun to Ms. Jackson face and she stood there and faced him. When asked was she scared “No. sir I seen plenty go off closer by, in my day and for less than what I done” (Welty). This shows that Ms. Jackson is strong and even though she is older she is not the typical elderly person. After traveling
In "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall," there are two themes. The first is self-pity. The second theme is the acceptance of her death. Both deal with the way people perceive their deaths and mortality in general. Granny Weatherall's behavior is Porter's tool for making these themes visible to the reader. The theme of self-pity is obvious and thoroughly explored early on. As a young lady, Granny Weatherall was left at the altar on her wedding day. As a result, the pathetic woman feels sorry for herself for the rest of her life. She becomes a bitter old woman who is suspicious of everyone around her. This point is shown early in the story when the do Granny Weatherall, the main character in Katherine Anne Porter's The Jilting of Granny Weatherall, is an 80-year-old elderly woman who is at the doorstep of death. There is a sense of disillusionment with Granny that leads readers to develop their own interpretation of her relationship with Cornelia, her daughter As the narrator, Granny unknowingly would paint the picture of Cornelia as nuisance and bothersome. In fact, the reader can rationalize that it is just Cornelia's concern for an ailing mother that creates the situation of her seemingly being there all the time.
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 the story.
“A Worn Path” told the story of an old woman named Phoenix Jackson. She had to make a long, adventurous journey to town in order to receive medicine for her grandson who had fallen ill. Phoenix Jackson was determined to reach her destination, and she did not let anything stand in her way. Throughout her voyage, she displayed characteristics of being brave, unselfish, and senile.
Word Press editor. “An Analysis of Eudora Welty’s ‘A Worn Path’”. Word press. N.P., April 12,2013. Web. 17 Mar 2014.
In the poem Old Bones by Chloe Love, Love describes an ailing grandmother who succumbs to death. In the poem, the dominant image image is death and the overall metaphor is to not fight death when it’s your time for peace. Old Bones’ figurative language, juxtaposition of words, and rhythm help the reader to understand the dominant image, as well as the overall metaphor. Through these writing tools, readers are able to better understand the underlying message in the poem Old Bones by Chloe Love.
Katherine Anne Porter wrote “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” to showcase how one woman responds to loss with strong faith. The reader is introduced to a feisty eighty year old woman named Granny Weatherall. Granny Weatherall is near death and while laying in her bed she starts to reminisce about past events in her life which include her being jilted by George, her fiancé. Then later on, Granny marries a man named John, who soon later dies leaving her with four kids. Granny assumes the role of both mother and father by taking care of everything for her kids. When Granny turns sixty, she prepares for death by seeing all of her kids and their children. On Granny’s bed side is Cornelia, her daughter, her doctor, and Father Connolly, a Roman
In "A Worn Path", a short story by Eudora Welty, the main character, an old colored woman named Phoenix, slowly but surely makes her way down a "worn path" through the woods. Throughout her journey, she runs into many obstacles such as a thorny bush and a hunter. She overcomes these obstacles and continues with her travels. She finally reaches her destination, the doctor’s office, where she gets medicine for her sick grandson back home. Many critics have speculated that this short story represents the love a grandmother shows for her grandson. Others say this story represents life and death, where Phoenix represents an immortal figure. Dennis J. Sykes disagrees with the other critics by saying, "A parallel exists between the journey described and the plight of the Southern blacks after the Civil War" (Sykes). Ultimately, Eudora Welty demonstrates how blacks have been persecuted in a white world.
"The Jilting of Granny Weatherall," with its third-person, stream of consciousness point of view, is not the first story one would think to make into a film. However, it was done! Please watch the short film version and discuss what the director did to the story to make it into a film. Is it a successful adaptation, to your mind? Why or why not?
An Abstract View of Death in Mrs.Dalloway and The Hours Works Cited Missing In Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours contradictory and almost altered views. of death are presented. Virginia Woolf and Michael Cunningham portray. death as an escape for some, but an entrapment for others. It is no longer treated as a subject to worry about or fear, which society now views it as a. A line from Shakespeare's Cymbeline, "Fear no more" heat o' the sun /
The interpretations of what comes after death may vary greatly across literature, but one component remains constant: there will always be movement. In her collection Native Guard, Natasha Trethewey discusses the significance, permanence and meaning of death often. The topic is intimate and personal in her life, and inescapable in the general human experience. Part I of Native Guard hosts many of the most personal poems in the collection, and those very closely related to the death of Trethewey’s mother, and the exit of her mother’s presence from her life. In “Graveyard Blues”, Trethewey examines the definition of “home” as a place of lament, in contrast to the comforting meaning in the epitaph beginning Part I, and the significance
In the story A Worn Path, Eudora Welty shows an old woman living in a time period where racial prejudice is rampant and out of control. Phoenix Jackson is a grandmother whose only motivation for living is to nurture her grandson back to health. The strength of love may make people do or say unusual and implausible things. The central idea of this story is that love can empower someone to over come many life-threatening obstacles. The idea is shown when an old woman conquers all odds against her to show her everlasting love for her grandson. Throughout the story Phoenix Jackson has to overcome many types of obstacles that hinder her in her devotion to help her grandson.
Common among classic literature, the theme of mortality engages readers on a quest of coping with one of the certainties of life. Katherine Anne Porter masterfully embraces the theme of mortality both directly and indirectly in her story, “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.” Understanding that all mankind ultimately becomes subject to death unleashes feelings of dread and anxiety in most people; however, Granny Weatherall transitions from rushing to meet her demise in her sixties to completely denying she is on her deathbed when she is eighty. Readers have seen this theme of mortality reverberated over and over in literature, but what makes this story stand the test of time is the author’s complexity. In Katherine Anne Porter’s
Death is painfully unpleasant for anyone who is approached with it. It can be difficult to comprehend and scary to live through, but just because death isn’t very well liked does not mean it doesn’t happen. In fact it happens every day through every hour; no rich, poor, healthy, or sick can escape it. The contemporary writer Amy Hempel gracefully writes about death between a friendship in her piece titled “In The Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried,” showing a relatable situation everyone will undergo at some point in their life. Hempel’s relatability to the subject of death and reactions, unique style of characterization, and rhythmic balance display the great qualities that make her work so rare; making it belong to the 21st century literary