Comparing Death in The Jilting of Granny Weatherall and A...

Comparing Death in The Jilting of Granny Weatherall and A Worn Path Death is not something to be feared, but faced with awe. Although, by nature, aging and death are merely facts of life; a loss of hope, the frustration of all aspirations, a leap into a great darkness, and the feelings of fear and anguish. Phoneix Jackson of Eudora Weltys A Worn Path and Granny of Katherine Anne Porters The Jilting of Granny Weatherall face these inevitable signs of aging and death. Phoenix Jackson, an old Negro lady, haltingly struggles with her age while walking through the woods and fields on her way to town. Seem like there is chains about my feet, time I get this far. Phoenix Jackson walks a worn path and overcomes obstacles and adversity†¦show more content†¦That would be acceptable, she said. But when she went to take it there was just her own hand in the air. This was just one out of many instances in the story where Phoenix talked to herself and had hallucinations. Talking to one’s self in the forest is a definite sign of senility. Phoenix did not allow her disabilities to get in her way. Her memory fails her when she forgets the purpose of her nature walk. My senses is gone. I too old, I the oldest people I ever know. As a dying person, Granny Weatherall is losing her powers of deliberate control over events, which she has evidently learned to master along with the various disappointments that life has dealt her but is also subject to a number of intense anxieties. While she was rummaging around she found death in her mind and it felt clammy and unfamiliar. She had spent so much time preparing for death there was no need for bringing it up again. In a semi-conscious state the feisty and irritable Granny reviews her life by remembering the important happenings, disappointments, crises, achievements, and feelings. The author uses a style of stream-of-consciousness which renders the thoughts, memories, and associations of Granny’s mind. This technique is especially well-suited to the story because it reveals Grannys alternating confused and clear thoughts during her final moments as she moves from lucid