The Jilting of Granny Weatherall

Dr. Cowart/Mr. Brooks

English 282 - 013

18 November 2011

Wise and Foolish

The Bible is undoubtedly the best selling book in the world, and almost all individuals can find connections between the Bible and their own lives, despite their religious affiliations. Parables, simple stories used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson (Dictionary.com), appear often in the Bible. Many modern authors use these parables in their own stories. In The Jilting of Granny Weatherall, Katherine Anne Porter uses parallelism and diction to show the similarities between Granny Weatherall and the ten virgins. Granny Weatherall embodies the faith of both the wise and the foolish virgins throughout her life. There are strong connections between the foolish and wise virgins in Matt:25 and Granny Weatherall, including the oil, the bridegroom, jilting and not being accepted into the marriage feast.

In The Jilting of Granny Wheatherall, Porter uses symbolism to connect Granny Weatherall to the virgins. The parable includes ten virgins that need to light their lamps in order to attend the marriage feast of the bridegroom. Five virgins have a sufficient amount of oil, and five virgins only have a little bit of oil. The five that have a lot of oil are wise because they can light their lamps and enter the feast and the five that have a little oil are foolish because they are not able to light their lamps. The word “oil” does not appear in the actual story by Porter but it symbolizes the life of Granny Weatherall. In the healthy years of her life, Granny Weatherall is quite successful. She raises a great family and her children follow after her, “And there they were, made out of her, and they couldn’t get away from that” (Porter). During these wonderful young years for Granny Weatherall, she resembles a wise virgin because she is prepared no matter the circumstance and is always there for her children; she has all of the oil she could ever ask for. The five wise virgins share a...