The Jilting of granny weatherall By: Katherine Anne Porter.

Silly quiz #12 Who was with Granny Weatherall when she was on her deathbed?

Objectives Cite textual evidence to support analysis. Determining word meaning from context. Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story. Using academic words. Making inferences. Understand elements of a story.

Kathrine Anne porter She was called a “Writer’s writer” because she was more popular with critics and her fellow writers than with the public. She had dreams of becoming an actress but these dreams were permanently dashed when she suffered with tuberculosis. Porter is the cousin of O. Henry. Her traveling around Mexico, Bermuda, Germany, Switzerland, and France inspired her writing as she said that travelling is a constant exercise of memory. Porter is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist.

Pre-Discussion Have you ever had a memory that keeps on lingering? How does it influence you? How do memories define us as individuals?

Text Analysis: Stream of Consciousness Stream of Consciousness: presents the main events of a story using a character’s thoughts, responses, and sensations. You see the internal development of the main character. Look for quotation marks to determine when Granny is speaking aloud or when she’s not. Notice the twist and turns of Granny’s thoughts to understand she is reacting to. Remember that the plot of this story moves back and forth between the present and the past.

Reading Skills: Flashback. Flashback: an interruption of the chronological sequence of an event of earlier occurrence in order to provide a background to the current event. Porter used flashback to shuffle the past and the present to depict the distorted way Granny perceives the sequence of events. She relates events that happened before the beginning of the story’s current time.

Vocabulary Embroidered: (adj.) Decorated with stitched designs. Plague: (v.) To annoy ; Harass. Assign: (n.) A person to whom property is transferred in a will or other legal document. Amethyst: (n.) A purple-coloured quartz used as a gemstone. Dwindle: (v.) To become steadily less; To shrink.

Discussion Which characters mentioned in the story belong exclusively to Granny Weatherall’s Life? Who is with Granny when she dies? Who is Hapsy? Which events mark the best and worst of Granny’s life? Cite Granny’s own thoughts and feelings about each event. What do the memories and thoughts that linger in Granny’s mind reveal about the kind of person she is?

Discussion What effect does stream of consciousness have on the readers? Which of the following statements best expresses the themes Porter conveys in this story? Support you choice with evidence from the story. There is no deed so wrong it can’t be forgiven. In youth we are all foolish; with age comes true wisdom. Life does not provide the answers or reassurances that people want, even at the moment of death.

Discussion Novelists said that Porter’s stories are “lethal to the most widely cherished illusions of the species”; they destroy our sentimental notions about things like romance, self-regard, and parenthood. What cherished illusions does Porter destroy in this story? What truth does she portray instead? Support your answer.

Vocabulary Embroidered Decorated with stitched designs Plague Assign Amethyst Dwindle Decorated with stitched designs To annoy or harass A person who inherits something A purple colored gemstone To become less; to shrink