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It’s a Hard Knock Life for Them

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In both Katherine Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” and Eudora Welty’s “Why I Live in the P.O.”, the main characters deal with family members they frankly do not like. Due to both of their being jilted by men, they are full of resentment and anger causing these women to leave their families on bad terms. Porter and Welty are presenting through the character’s flashbacks and memories that we should pick our battles wisely when it comes to our families because one day they will be gone and, some of us might miss our deceased loved ones, like Granny from “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”, or be filled with a hatred towards them, like Sister from “Why I Live in the P.O.”. Porter and Welty both provide flashbacks and memories in their stories to help the reader see what Granny and Sister’s lives were like before everything fell apart with their families. Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” is packed of the flashbacks and memories of Granny’s past relationships with the only people she loves even though are all dead. She reminisced about her youthful days when she was strong, independent, and with John, the man who stood her up at the altar and died when Granny was young. She still loves him and wants to see him, but “John would be looking for a young woman with the peaked Spanish comb in her hair and the painted fan,” (Porter 81) she believed he would not recognize her. Granny also lost one of her daughters, Hapsy along with her newborn who also died. When Granny brought those memories to the surface a fog of darkness, clouds reality and she gets lost and recalls that, “there was the day, the day, but a whirl of dark smoke rose and covered it, crept up and over into the bright field where everything was planted so c... ... middle of paper ... ...to be pertinacious like Sister. The flashbacks allow the reader to go back with the characters and see what we missed out on, example; Granny’s happier days, when she had her man and she was strong and young, or Sister’s happier days when she also had her man and was treated respectably by certain members of her family. Furthermore, I believe the point both authors proposed was this, “Choose battles wisely and forgive or, forever suffer continuous loss.” Works Cited Porter, Katherine. “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 11th ed. New York: Longman, 2010. 79-86. Print. Welty, Eudora. “Why I Live at the P.O.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 11th ed. New York: Longman, 2010. 42-50. Print.
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