The Dual Effect of Granny’s Jiltings Throughout the story “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” the protagonist, Granny, was jilted several times. The jiltings that Granny, or Ellen, experienced through her life had the dual effect of improving while worsening it. Granny feels jilted several times in her life: she was left at the altar; her husband died young, leaving her to shoulder the burden of being head of household; an incident that the story hints at is the death of her daughter Hapsy while she was giving birth; as well as Granny not getting a sign from God on her deathbed. All these incidents compounded to harden her. Yet, they simultaneously lent her the ability to soldier on through a difficult life.
While reading the novel My Sister’s Keeper it took me back to the year my mom died, just like Kate she too needed a kidney but wasn’t as fortunate to live long enough for it to happen. More depth into the book I began to put myself in all of the characters shoes, Kate and Anna were both brave. Anna was brave because she kept undergoing surgery for her sister donating stem cells, bone marrow, and blood which were all not easily done. Kate is also brave because she never once complained; she loved her sister more than herself and she already knew her fate was decided. ”My sister’s the one who’s always had to imagine life without me”.
What wasn’t normal was that she was sad, very sad. I had never seen my grandmother cry, that I could remember, and even worse I had no idea why she was crying. Now I can’t believe she didn’t cry more. Then she went to the hospital for a long time for various surgeries, and plans on what to do next. My brother and I stayed at my Grandpa’s house most of the time she was up there mostly only going home to sleep and get ready for school the next day, it was weird and confusing but my grandpa was good at getting our minds off of things and keeping our spirits up when he needed to.
They wake her up early and help her stretch her legs in hope that they will one day be straight/normal. They showed the compassion that her birth mother would never give to her child. Linda later recalls, “I must have been held so much that the sensation became a part of me”(65). Fifty years later when Linda and her mother Nancy finally meet for dinner, they don’t hug or even shake hands. The mother may be the birth mother and be related by blood but she sure doesn’t show any love toward her handicapped daughter that she abandoned.
Her husband left early on in Emily’s life and her mother was forced to leave her with friends or send her to day care. “…and I did not know then what I know now- the fatigue of the long day, and the lacerations of group life in the kinds of nurseries that are only parking places for children” (Olsen 707). Emily got nowhere near the amount of attention she needed. Maggie, on the other hand, was always with her mother. Maggie’s mother was also older and better suited to be a mother because she was older and more experienced however, Maggie’s father also left the family.
When Lancelot is going to see the Lady of Shallot, she knows she is stepping into dangerous waters, but still goes along with it. Her image of herself turns so bad, that the basically kills herself and unhappy and lonely woman. After she is dead, Lancelot sees her and only says that “She has a lovely face,” demonstrating that he only cared about her looks and not really her inner beauty. The Lady of Shallot is a round character because she changes throughout the short story. At the beginning, she believes in herself and who she is as a person, but she is lonely.
My Significant Experience One of the most significant experiences that I have had in my life so far was the birth of my son. Jr. After going to bed upset because my due date came and was almost over I was rudely woken up at 3:30 am by sharp stabbing pains in my stomach. I tried to go back to sleep but due to the contractions I couldn’t. I walked down hallway into the living room to watch some T.V, being as I can’t fall asleep I might as well stay entertained. As time went on it couldn’t even sit down so I called my mom and she told me to get on my hands and knees rock side to side and back and forth.
Because of his recently lose of his sister to cancer. He has gone into a form of early midlife crisis, where he begins to full around, being his wife unfaithful. It started “with his sister’s friend, Debra Harding, when his sister was at the hospice, and that had been just ten minutes of necking at the far dark end of a parking lot.”(p.7, l.33-34). Carl is not unhappily married, but they just married too soon. They thought they knew each other well enough to get married, but as Carl says it in the text “And once we did it seemed too late” (p.8, l.66).
After months of testing and the doctors telling my mom I might have cancer, we finally got an answer. My diagnosis was called Chronic Recurrent Multifocal Osteomyelitis (pediatrics 2005). This disease is something that is very rare childhood disease. After multiple surgeries, lots of medication and a whole year spent living at the hospital things had started to quiet down. Throughout all of this, I met so many compassionate nurses, doctors with great bedside manner and even laundry and maintenance people who would stop and say hi.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” a short story by Katherine Anne Porter, describes the last thoughts, feelings, and memories of an elderly woman. As Granny Weatherall’s life is fading she sees her life before her eyes and the title all of a sudden makes more sense. She is filled with disappointment due to relationships in her life. She has failed with everything and everyone in her life. She is filled with fear in her last moments, all alone.