Comparing The Jilting Of Granny Weatherall, And Once Upon A Time

Essay 1

The short stories The Lottery, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall, and Once Upon a Time all have similar endings resulting in death or an inevitable death. The theme of each story is directly relevant to their ending as well as the meaning of the stories as a whole. In the short story The Lottery, the villagers murder their own because it is a tradition. The theme is examining “blind faith” and following traditions at the expense of human life. The Jilting of Granny Weatherall is the conscious stream of a woman who is in the last moments of her life. Once Upon a time represents the author’s personal fear during a time of uncertainty in the 1990s. These short stories share a common trait that is the tragedy of death.

In the short story

The Lottery, Tessie Hutchinson is brutally murdered by her fellow villagers. Tessie was the unfortunate “winner” of the lottery which concludes with her fellow townspeople stoning her to an inevitable death based on a tradition. In the story, Old Man Warner says, “Pack of crazy fools… Next thing you, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves.” when he is told that other villages have stopped the lottery. This shows the mindset of the villagers about the tradition of the lottery. Although the townspeople perform the lottery yearly, none of the villagers ask why they do this. They follow “blind faith” and this leads to injustice and a cruel death.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall is about an old woman’s stream of consciousness of the last moments of her life.

She lived a full and faithful life weathering through every obstacle and hardship. In her final moments, Granny Weatherall feels jilted by God because she has no clear or definite answer for whether she will be with her deceased child Hapsy. Granny says, “Oh no, there’s nothing more cruel than this- I’ll never forgive it.” and the story goes on to explain that she was jilted for the second time by God. Granny Weatherall was jilted by her fiance George before he left her at the altar. This leads to Granny’s thoughts of George in her final moments. True to form, Granny didn’t let the jilting George to stop her living and she didn’t let the jilting of God stop her from “blowing out the light” as the story

concludes.
In Once Upon a Time a family is experiencing the rational fear of the world around them.

The story begins with the author’s personal experience of being frightened. As the story takes place during segregation in South Africa, this explains the true meaning of the short story and the actions of the characters. Many phrases in this story hint that it is a children’s story such as “happily ever after” and the title itself being a reference to countless fairy tales. The story concludes when a young child is killed by the family’s newest security system that is meant to keep the “other” people out of the home. Despite the cautionary signs reading “YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED” the child dies due to the parents not informing him of the dangers around him. Although the family’s fear was rational, it lead to devastating

consequences.
The Lottery, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall, and Once Upon a Time all conclude with unnecessary and cruel deaths. However, these deaths lead to a clear understanding of the theme for each story. In The Lottery, Mrs. Hutchinson’s death could have been avoided with a single word; why? This short story draws attention to the inhumanity of violence and blind faith. In The Jilting of Granny Weatherall, Granny Weatherall is in deep denial about the basic truths of her life and her death. Although Granny Weatherall overcame many obstacles, being jilted by God was one thing she could never forgive. Once Upon a Time is about the devastating consequences when one overreacts over a fear. The fear of the outside world is rational but there are dangers everywhere.