Compare The Jilting Of Granny Weatherall And An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

Both of the main characters in “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Katherine Anne Porter and “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce experience misconceptions about themselves and their worlds. These illusions greatly contribute to the similar themes of these stories. Each story addresses denial and the effects it may have on a character’s feelings and actions. Granny, in “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” experiences denial that causes her to waste her life. On the other hand, Peyton Farquhar, in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” begins with the denial of his role in society as well as his imminent death, but slowly learns to accept his end. The differences between the way in which these characters experience denial and

Though these events ultimately inhibit Granny’s enjoyment and appreciation for the rest of her life, she weathers through it all, which her last name, “Weatherall,” indicates. Porter gives the reader insight into Granny’s first experience of denial when George left her at the altar. When considering all of the tasks she must complete “tomorrow,” Granny notes, “All those letters--George’s letters and John’s letters and her letters to them both--lying around for the children to see made her uneasy” (396). The reader soon learns that George has jilted Granny, when she had, “Put on the white veil and set out the white cake for a man and he doesn’t come? … For sixty years she had prayed against remembering him and against losing her soul in the deep pit of hell, and now the two things were mingled in one and the thought of him was a smoky cloud from hell that moved and crept in her head …” (398). Though Granny tried to forget the embarrassing and disheartening moment when she was left at the altar on her wedding day, her denial of it comes back to haunt her in her last hours of life. She believes she has forgotten, but, “She had changed her mind after sixty years and she would like to see George. [She wanted Cornelia] to find George and tell him [she] forgot him” (398). Granny wants to prove to George that she had a good life with John and her children, but in wanting Cornelia to find him after

As Peyton realizes he is dying, “He closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts upon his wife and children” (345). This realization does change in Part III of the short story when Peyton hallucinates his escape from the gallow. Likewise, in Part II, Peyton also demonstrates denial. Because he was a “well-to-do planter” (346), Peyton had not gone to war as a soldier. Ultimately, he did nothing for the Southern cause in the Civil War. However, Peyton denies this, saying, “Meanwhile he did what he could. No service was too humble for him to perform in aid of the South, no adventure too perilous for him to undertake if consistent with the character of a civilian who was at heart a soldier … all is fair in love and war” (346). Peyton is soon coerced into fighting for the South by a Federal Scout, who, with his fellow soldiers, traps Peyton and hangs him over the Owl Creek. Peyton was so oblivious to the scout’s identity because of his ego and eagerness to get involved in the war without the chance of dying. He was soon proven wrong, as he “fell straight downward through the bridge …” (346). Within the last seconds of his life, Peyton imagines his escape from the soldiers, but this denial causes first causes him to ignore his death. Later, though, he accepts his death and experiences every sound and touch