How is "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" a stream of consciousness story?

keebla21,

"The Jilting of Granny Weatherall by Katherine Porter is a classic study in "stream of consciousness." The literary term refers to events chronicled not in a chronologicsl or linear manner, but the way the character perceives things through their inner thoughts. This is often applied to works where characters are either dying, mentally ill, or under great sense where their "thoughts jump from one idea to the next without pattern or motive" (classic definition). 

Ellen Weatherall is fiery, used to having her way, and unwilling to be treated like the sick old woman she is, for a grandmother who has "weathered it all."

With its frequent excursions into the rambling consciousness of its dying protagonist, “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” gives us a classic picture of what it means to have lived fully.

The events of the story are reported in the third person by a narrator who can see into Granny Weatherall’s mind. When Granny's lucid, the story proceeds in chronological order.

In the story’s most interesting assages—especially in paragraphs 17–18 and 24–31—Porter uses stream of consciousness with great skill to present the randomly mingled thoughts and impressions that move through Granny’s dying mind. By fragmenting Granny’s thoughts, by having her shuttle back and forth between reality and fantasy, by distorting her sense of the passage of time, the author manages to persuade us that the way Granny experiences dying must be nearly universal.