Katherine Anne Porter

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Katherine Anne Porter

• 1890 - 1980

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• Born in a log cabin in Texas
• Raised mostly by her grandmother
• Had a sprawling family
• Familiar with hardship and deprivation
• Fragmentary schooling education was not steady
  divided into chunks of schooling

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• Married for the first time at 16 married 4 times
• Impatient with lasting marital relationships but
  didnt like being alone
• Traveled widely lived in the West, Greenwich
  Village, Mexico, Paris, and Berlin (other places
  as well)
• Worked as a newspaper reporter and a translator

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• A creative writer who was largely self-taught
• Became well-red had a natural talent for story
  telling
• Works present southern women who are caught up in
  a web of custom and obligation
• Main themes include burdens of past evil and the
  strain with which that evil hold us captive in
  the present
• Won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize

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Terms to Know

• Stream of consciousness a style of writing that
  conveys the inner and sometimes chaotic
  workings of a characters mind
• Ambiguities meanings that are unclear or open
  to more than one interpretation
• Characterization the way that a writer reveals
  the personality of a character

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Ways a writer reveals a character

• By telling us directly what is character is like
• David was the sneakiest person in our club.
• By describing how the character looks and dresses
• Eliza, in her faded jeans, tye-died T-shirt, and
  sandals, sat quietly under the tree enjoying the
  day.
• By letting us hear the character speak
• By revealing the characters private thoughts and
  feelings
• By revealing the characters effect on other
  peopleshowing how other characters feel or
  behave toward the character
• By showing the character in action

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Types of characterization

• Direct the writer tells us directly we do not
  have to figure out what the characters
  personality is like
• Indirect we have to use clues that the writer
  gives to infer what a character is like similar
  to what we have to do in real life when we meet
  someone new
• In The Jilting of Granny Weatherall, everything
  we learn about the characters is through indirect
  characterization.

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Vocabulary Development

• Tactful skilled in saying the right thing
• My grandmother was sometimes less than tactful.
• Clammy cold and damp
• When Beau passed out, he felt clammy.
• Plague annoy
• Harry loves to plague his older sister.
• Vanity excessive pride
• Donnas vanity made it difficult for many people
  to like her.
• Jilted rejected (as a lover)
• Edith was jilted by Juan.
• Disputed contested
• Warren disputed the evidence brought against him.
• Nimbus aura halo
• As Bryant came to, he saw a nimbus around the
  coachs head.
• Dwindled diminshed
• The number of cookies quickly dwindled when the
  children came in from the playground.

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The Jilting of Granny Weatherall

• The story takes place in one day at Cornelias
  home, where Granny Weahterall lives.
• Granny is an 80-year-old woman who is on her
  deathbed.
• Her husband John has been dead for many years.
• In addition to Cornelia, her other children are
  Lydia, Jimmy, and Hapsy. Hapsy is her favorite.
  
• Granny passes in and out of consciousness. As
  she does so, she interacts with her doctor and
  her daughter. She also thinks back on her long
  life.

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Study Questions

• At the beginning of the story, Grannys bones are
  described as feeling loose and like they are
  floating in her skin. What is happening to her
  at this point?
• How does Granny feel about Cornelia?
• What impressions do you have of Granny?
• Why does Granny think that her husband John
  would be a child beside her now if she saw him
  now?
• What happened to Granny sixty years ago?
• Who is Hapsy? Where is she?
• How did George affect Grannys life?
• What are the ambiguities in the story?