Literary Devices in The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
When it comes to the setting in "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall," we're forced to think small. Like, really small. We're never told whether the story is set in Alaska or Missouri—all we know is...
Narrator Point of View
Make no mistake: "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" is told in third person, but if we're not careful, we could make the mistake of thinking the story's point of view is first person. D'oh! Th...
Genre
Katherine Anne Porter might not be as closely associated with modernism as big shot writers like James Joyce, William Faulkner, or Virginia Woolf, but her emphasis on the inner workings of Granny's...
Tone
You know that feeling you get around mid-October when you've got a bunch of exams to study for and you suddenly think back to July, when the only stress you had was deciding whether to hang out at...
Writing Style
Since a lot of this story relies on the literary technique of stream of consciousness (hop on over to our Genre discussion for more on this), we're pretty much swept up in the tides of Granny's min...
What's Up With the Title?
We might be wondering why this story isn't called something like "The Death of Granny Weatherall." After all, that's pretty much the main event of the story. Granny got jilted long ago, when she wa...
What's Up With the Ending?
We can't say we didn't see this ending coming a mile away (well, at least a few paragraphs away). As much as Granny starts the story off insisting that she's fine, we figure out pretty quickly that...
Tough-o-Meter
"The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" does not feature a complicated plot or an overdose of polysyllabic words. Rather, what makes this story a little more difficult than average is the fact that it t...
Plot Analysis
Who You Calling Sick, Buddy?Granny is in bed being examined by Doctor Harry, but she insists that she's fine and just needs a little rest. This sets an interesting stage for the story—it gets u...
Trivia
Creepy! Katherine Anne Porter kept the coffin in which she would later be buried inside her closet. (Source)Porter is a very distant relative of the famous short story writer O. Henry (his real nam...
Steaminess Rating
It's probably good that a story about a grandmother isn't too steamy—that would add a whole different (not to mention strange) level to this story. Of course, that doesn't mean that this story is...
Allusions
St. Michael (56): Saint Michael was one of the highest-ranking angels and one of three angels named in Scriptures