Author Question: Her bones felt loose, and floated around in her skin, and Doctor Harryfloated like a balloon ... (Read 1141 times)

Coya19@aol.com · **on:** Jul 20, 2018

Her bones felt loose, and floated around in her skin, and Doctor Harryfloated like a balloon (paragraph 6). What do you understand from this statement? By what other remarks does the writer indicate Grannys condition? In paragraph 56, why does Father Connolly tickle Grannys feet? At what other moments in the story does she fail to understand what is happening, or confuse the present with the past?

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

What does the name of Weatherall have to do with Grannys nature (orher life story)? What other traits or qualities do you find in her?

What will be an ideal response?

nathang24 · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 20, 2018

Answer to Question 1

Granny is very ill, her sense of reality distorted by lengthening periods of confusion. The story quite convincingly ushers Granny Weatherall by fits and starts into an altered state of consciousness preceding death. Grannys weakened grasp on reality is again apparent: when the doctor appeared to float up to the ceiling and out (par. 7); when the pillow rose and floated under her and she thought she heard leaves, or newspapers, rustling (par. ; when she pondered her impossible plans for tomorrow (par. 17 and 26) in her belief that she could, if she wanted to, pack up and move back to her own house (par. 24); in the distortions that creep into Grannys sense of the passage of time (par. 28, 29, 36, 37, 42, 43, 50, 56, and 57); when she feels the pillow rising again (par. 29); in Grannys sporadic inability to hear (par. 31 and 32); in her belief that there are ants in the bed (par. 40); in Grannys occasional inability to speak clearly enough to be understood (par. 40 and 53); when Granny has hallucinations in which she confronts her daughter Hapsy (par. 41, 50, and 60); in the doctors rosy nimbus (par. 51); in Grannys failure to comprehend that Father Connolly is not tickling her feet but administering the last rites of the Catholic Church (par. 56). (In the anointing of the sick, formerly known as Extreme Unction, the priest makes a sign of the cross with oil upon the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hands, and feet of the person in danger of death, while praying for his or her soul.)

Answer to Question 2

Granny has weathered allunrequited love, marriage, the birth of five children, early widowhood, backbreaking labor, milk-leg and double pneumonia, the loss of her favorite daughter, and the frustrations of old age. Her victories over adversity have made her

scornful of her daughter Cornelia, who seems to her weak and inadequate. Granny is tough and inclined to hold a grudge. She has never forgiven the man who jilted her. So overweening is her pride, in fact, that at the moment of her death, when she wants a sign and fails to perceive one, she decides she will never forgive.