“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 Granny’s condition? In paragraph 56, why does Father Connolly tickle Granny’s 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?
- 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. Granny’s 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. 8); 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 Granny’s 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 Granny’s sporadic inability to hear (par. 31 and 32); in her belief that there are ants in the bed (par. 40); in Granny’s 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 doctor’s “rosy nimbus” (par. 51); in Granny’s 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.)
Language Arts & World Languages
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Language Arts & World Languages