Katherine Anne Porter “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”

Try to understand Granny’s character. What are examples of Granny’s strengths? Her weaknesses? What other character traits does she have?

Think about Cornelia’s statement, “She was never like this, never like this!” Do you trust Cornelia’s perception? If not, why not?

Toward the end, Granny thinks of several things she’d like to do, but the reader knows she won’t be able to do any of them. Did this story affect your feelings about dying and preparing for death?

Porter chose to call the story “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.” Why this instead of “The Dying of Granny Weatherall”? Why does Granny think about George as she’s dying? Who else disappoints her at the end of the story?

One of Granny’s strengths is that she seems to have been a very strong woman at an early age in life. She had lots of life experienced that molded her and shaped her into a strong woman. For example her husband dying when their children were still so young and she had to raise them on her own. She had to do things like building a fence around a hundred acres and “digging the post holes herself and clamping the wires with just a negro boy to help. That changed a woman.” This was hard labor, along with raising her children.

One her weaknesses are that she seems a little bitter toward her ex lover George, who left her on their wedding day. She’s old and dying and she wants George to be found so that he can be told that she has forgotten about him, and that she married, and was happy after all. This part is just sad to me that she would be holding a grudge and bitterness toward someone as she is dying. She’s lived a hard enough life that she doesn’t need to be thinking about such an event in her life.

When Granny is listing all the things she would like to do it really encouraged me to continue living life to the fullest and continue pursuing all my dreams and aspirations. I know it is cliché and cheesy, but it is so true; you do not want to be old and dying and wish you accomplished your list of things whether they are big or small. This really pushed me to keep going everyday because at least I’m trying and that is just as important as actually accomplishing the things you’d like to accomplish in a lifetime.