Katherine Ann Porter`s `The jilting of Granny Weatherall`

Exploration of Narrative Technique in

Katherine Anne Porter 's

The Jilting of Granny Weatherall

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Katherine Anne Porter wrote and published The Jilting of Granny Weatherall ' in 1930 . This is a story of a grandmother who is dying While she is surrounded by her family most of the action of the story takes place in her head . The Jilting of Granny Weatherall "skillfully written and culturally important story about growing and being old (Cline 170 . The story centers around the inner monologue

of Granny Weathall as she remembers the times and tribulations of her life The majority of which are incidents in which she feels jilted With each subsequent jilt ' Granny Weatherall becomes more jaded and paranoid . At the end of her life her only concern is if she will be jilted by God too . The story was eventually made into a movie directed by Randa Haines . The development of the rising action , falling action resolution and theme , in "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall " can be attributed to the stream of consciousness rhetoric technique employed by Katherine Porter

Stream of consciousness writing mirrors the human thinking pattern Stream of consciousness writing is characterized by the use long , run on sentences , changing of tense , informal conversation , and viewpoint Porter 's writing has very little punctuation and what is present is used to stop and start thoughts not sentences "All this is spewed out in a stream of choppy clauses , sentence fragments , and isolated words that reflect Granny 's own mental processes . Time too is fragmented , the present often sliding into the past , or the past (Grider 153 . Porter utilizes this technique to allow the reader to understand and almost interact almost directly with the mind of Granny Weatherall . Through this technique "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall " Porter first attempts to portray the elder wise woman (Porter 132 . Porter is able to inform the reader many things no one else but Granny Weatherall has experienced or felt . The whole of the story takes place within Granny Weatherall and "the real setting was in Granny Weatherall 's mind (Tanner 19

The reader is first introduced to Granny Weatherall when she is being fussed over by Doctor Harry . The reader soon realizes this will be the last day of her . It is clear a few sentences into the story that Porter will comments both of life , death , and coming to terms with each Granny Weatherall can not fathom that her life is going to be over and refuses to give in to death . She believes she is not sick and certainly not in need of a doctor and comments "get along and doctor your sick and Leave a well woman alone " Porter makes good use of this interior stream of consciousness and especially useful in representing the mind of not just an old woman whose memory fades in and out . It also represented the desperation of an individual that is facing her own death

The rising action...