Interpreting Katherine Anne Porter’s The Jilting of Granny Weatherall From the Angle of Eco-feminism
Interpreting Katherine Anne Porter’s TheJilting of Granny Weatherall From the Angle of Eco-feminism
Chapter One Katherine AnnePorter and Eco-feminis
1.1Katherine Anne Porter and TheJilting of Granny Weatherall
Being considered as anoutstanding representative of America’s Southern female writers, Katherine AnnePorter has made a great contribution to American Southern Literature by writingsuch novels as The Flowering Judas(1930), Pale Rider(1939), TheOld Orders(1944), The Leaning Tower(1944) and A Ship of Fools(1962),etc. Katherine Anne Porter expresses her concern over the southern history andsocial reality, and her appreciation to women’s emancipation in most ofher works. The initiation of American southern females is a major theme in the storiesof Katherine Anne Porter.
Among all Katherine AnnePorter’s works, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall is crowned as amasterpiece of American Southern Literature. The novel is first published in1929 when female liberation gradually internalizes in American society afterthe first Feminist Movement.
Robert Penn Warren, afamous American writer and critic, thinks that many short novels written byPorter are incomparable in the modern times. He also considers that TheJilting of Granny Weatherall is one of the most excellent work among Porter’snovels. Many people analyze this work by different techniques in these years.Analysis from the angle of feminism is the most common one. Female liberationis always the theme of this work’s critics. Li Qionghua and Hu Zhongqing areexamples who use feminism to interpret Granny Weatherall. They pay muchattention to the women’s position and explore the causes of their statusof the “other” in a patriarchal society. Fu Kefeng makes interpretationon this work in the view of the theme of female growth. He emphasizes theprocess that Granny Weatherall grows from betrayals three times. WhileGe Jiaojiao stresses that Granny Weatherall is a victim to man-dominated worldinstead of a new woman at that time.
The title of the novel implies two aspects about Granny Weaterall’slife. On the one hand, it points out her tragedy of being jilted; on the otherhand, it shows all hardships Granny weathered in her life. In The Jilting ofGranny Weatherall, the novel is composed of two main parts: consciousnessin the past and reality at present. Katherine Anne Porter representsthat Granny Weatherall is a woman with a strong will who suffers frommany obstacles by herself and tastes much bitterness from the society.Porter expresses a great sympathy for the heroine, as well as appreciation.
1.2Women’s position in Porter’s age
Katherine AnnePorterwrites The Jilting of Granny Weatherall around the 1920s and 1930s.During that period, with development of economics and culture, women take a newaspect on appearance, behavior, marriage and family, especially on job.According to Nancy Woloch’s Women and the American Experience,“thenew women is a typical one who is younger and more attractive.”(Nancy Woloch,1984:381) They pay more attention to private things instead of the public, tendto competition rather than cooperation, self-satisfaction instead of socialservice. Although the new women are aware of their women consciousness andpursue emancipation in daily life, American women’s position does not changeessentially at the time of 1930s.
The traditional concept “women’splace in family” still roots in the society. Robert L. Daniel points out thatinstead of being appreciated by its courage, the emancipation of the new womenis criticized as “destroying the ingrained, nutritional, effective genderrelations”(Robert L. Daniel, 1987:87). The patriarchal society can not admitthe liberation of women. Women’s liberation is illusory. Upon social greatchanges happening, the liberation which belongs to women will disappearimmediately. Lois Banner considers “the increase number of employed womenduring the 1920s does not essentially promote women’s position in labor force”(LoisBanner, 1987:151). While the men enjoy the freedom of doing what they like,most women in Porter’s time are still constrained in the households in theirmost lifetime, and most roles they play are obedient daughters, submissivewives and loving mothers. Jobs which women have just change their economic status,and their social positions do not improve.
From the 1920s to 1930s,women’s position is still under the men’s, and the men domain the society. Inaddition, with the economic crisis in the 1930s, feminist movementstagnates, and traditional concept still limits women’s steps into the newtime. To conclude, in Porter’s time, women are unable to escape from therestrictions of social culture and tradition; women’s position in Porter’s timeis still lower than men.
1.3A sketch of Eco-feminism
In the 1970s,Eco-feminism emerges at the right moment, which combines ecology and feminism.As the third generation of feminist movement, Eco-feminism theory covers criticson gender discrimination, the control of natural, speciesism, racism and soon. It is a kind of social and political movement. Since the 1960s,encountering the serious ecological crisis, Eco-feminism explores the primarycauses of environmental deterioration and ecological crisis and provides thetheories basis to harmonious relationship between men and nature. To somedegree, Eco-feminism emerges in response to the needs of times.
Francoise d’Eaubonne initiates“Eco-feminsim” as a term, which marks the beginning of the research onwestern Eco-feminism. Being the pioneer of Eco-feminist, Carolyn. Merchantfirstly links “the natural discrimination” and “gender discrimination”, andfrench feminist Francoise d’Eaubonne points out that, in her work Feminismor Death, the oppression of women has a direct link with the oppression ofnature. According to Carolyn Merchant’s The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,and Scientific Revolution: nature exists as the concept of the organismsince ancient times, and the core of organic theory is equated tonature, especially the earth and the image of the mother, which has a culturalforce to human behavior itself. It points out the other similarity betweenwomen and nature: maternity. Both women and nature feed human beings and arecalled “mother”, which is an inevitable and significant fact in Eco-feminism.
Since in the mid-1980s,Karen.J.Warren puts forward the core assumptions of Eco-feminism: theimportant link between oppression on women and oppression on nature;understanding the essential of links is necessary; Eco-feminism theory and timemust contain the angle of ecology; the settlement of ecological problem mustcontain the angle of feminism(Karen.J.Warren, 1987:3-20).
Since then, according toMurphy, an American scholar, “in American universities, Eco-feminism isinitially used for the research in the Department of Philosophy and Women’sCenter, and it also has a little use in the environment Department.” In thewest, the Eco-feminism becomes a new weapon to challenge the patriarchalsociety and patriarchal domination, and continuously affectsenvironmental studies, ethnics and so on.
Subsequently,Eco-feminism, which comes into the field of English Language and Literature,provides a new aspect on literary criticism and literary creation. Owing to theexistence of Eco-feminism, a new literary trend comes into being. And usingEco-feminism to analyze the literary work establishes its own status finally inthe 1990s.
Chapter Two Relationshipbetween nature and women
2.1Similarities between Nature and Women
“Landscape and uterusare all according on the rhythm of universe”, just like what Virginia Woolfsuggests, nature and women are bound up with each other, and life is comingfrom nature, and women have the same rhythm with nature. Within the field ofEco-feminism, relevance of nature and women primarily reflects on thefollowing aspects: first, in the traditional culture, people alwayscompared nature to mother, for mother’s function to breed is similar tothe nature’s nurturing lives. Nature offers a complex biosphere toaccommodate all things on earth and continuously produces a fruitful property;and women give birth to children with there own flesh and blood, and conversefood into milk to feed children; second, the other coincidence between natureand women is that they are both submitted to domination and oppression in apatriarchal society. In the man-dominated world, nature and women are deportedto the “others”(Simone de Beauvoir, 1997:30). The slogan, “conquest of nature”or “conquest of women”, shows that nature and women become the conquered in amale society together and they both live under the shadow of the “others”.In the other words, they become a victim to a man-dominated worldtogether; third, nature’s power is so strong that she can standobstacles and pediments made by a human society while women haveimpenetrable spiritual world which help them bear inequitable suppression undera patriarchal society.
2.1.1Nature’s feeding and Granny’s raising
Nature has afunction of nourishing the earth, playing an important role of “mother ofuniverse”. No matter how much rain and wind nature experiences, itsmaternity will not be changed. While in The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,Granny Weatherall is a mother of four children. When her young husband Johndies, Granny Weatherall begins her road to raise her children by herself. “Whenshe thought of all the food she had cooked, and all the clothes she had cut andsewed, and all the garden she had made-well, the children showed it. There theywere, made out of her, and they couldn’t get away from that.”(Katherine AnnePorter, 1965:82) As a single mother, Granny Weatherall devotes herself intoraising her children. She loves her children with all her heart. Everything onthe children is created by her hands and painstaking effort.
In the process ofbringing up her children, Granny Weatherall overcame many difficulties andsuffered bitterness from her broken world, “sitting up nights with sick horsesand sick negroes and sick children and hardly ever loosing one ”(Katherine AnnePorter, 1965:83). But all pediments can not prevent Granny Weatherall fromraising her children. On the contrary, difficulties or pediments or otherchallenges from life make her stronger than before. She never gives up herchildren or complains any miserable sufferings, and she always does well inrearing children. “Sometimes she wanted to see John again and point to them andsay, Well, I didn’t do so badly, did I?”(Katherine Anne Porter, 1965:83).Granny Weatherall wants to show John that she has already finished the task asa good mother. Bearing sufferings in the process of fostering children alone,Granny Weatherall presents an image of a great mother. As nature feedseverything on the earth silently, Granny Weatherall endures all pains ofbringing her children up without any complaints.
2.1.2Nature’s strong power and Granny’s strong personality
According toEco-feminists, nature and women can not be separated from each other and theymutually have a direct link. In addition to maternity, nature and GrannyWeatherall also have similarity in strength. Nature owns strong power whileGranny Weatherall is rich in strong personality.
Just like what VictorHugo suggests, nature is a kind mother, as well as a cruel butcher. Naturepossesses strong power which can benefit everything or destroy anything. Whendestruction made by man to nature is up to the extremity, nature will overthreweverything it creates by its powerful force. In The Jilting of GrannyWeatherall, the heroine, Granny Weatherall, is a women with strongpersonality. With the pain of young husband’s death and the burdens of thefamily, Granny Weatherall takes on household responsibility immediately insteadof crying. She knows that tears are no use in such conditions but expressingdeep sorrow; she knows sadness can not make their life better but even worse.Both Granny and nature are strong enough to afford hurt from the outside.Confronting the setbacks of life, Granny Weatherall advanced courageously. Ateighty, when she is sick and staying in bed weakly, her words soundsconfident and powerful, “Get along now, take your school-books and go.”, “Thereis nothing wrong with me”.(Katherine Anne Porter, 1965:80) Badly sick even delirious as she is, Granny is still atough woman, which makes her survive in a succession of shocks. Herpowerful words suggests that she does not believe her serious illness, “Getalong and doctor your sick”, “Leave a well woman alone.” (Katherine AnnePorter, 1965:80). “Her bones felt loose, and floated.”(Katherine Anne Porter,1965:80), no matter how weak her body is, her spiritual world is never beaten,her personality is still strong. In other words, her strong personality searsinto her blood and fresh, “don’t tell me what I’m going to be. I’m on my feetnow, morally speaking.”(Katherine Anne Porter, 1965:80) Strong and independent,brave and persistent as she is, Granny weathers numerous hardships during herlife journey. Because of her strong personality, Granny Weatherall can bedestroyed but never defeated.
2.2Coalition between nature and women
The similarities betweennature and women decide their close relationship. Just like Eco-feministsbelieve that women can easily approach nature than men. Women is the protectorof nature, while nature is the mild refuge of women. In the mid-1980s, CarlinWarren put froward core assumptions of Eco-feminism, which pointed out thatfeminist theory and practice must contain an ecological perspective and thesolution of ecological problems must include the feminist perspective. Theseassumptions reveal the coexistence between women and nature and suggestcoalition between nature and women.
While Terry TempestWilliams, a famous Eco-feminist and the writer of Refuge, clearlyannounces in his Refuge the coalition between women and nature againstmen, “subjugation of women and nature may be a loss of intimacy with themselves”(TerryTempest Williams, 1991:36). When dating back to the history that men dominateon nature and women, Eco-feminists points out that the patriarchal dualisticframework of mind is the same origin of the domination over nature and women.Therefore, nature and women have the same enemy and they form coalition tofight against their common enemy.
As to the Eco-feminists,the domination of women and nature are culturally analogous. The patriarchalsociety subordinated both women and nature by naturalizing women and feminizingnature. Women and nature share the same fate and they make coalitionautomatically. All these opinions prove that nature and women have alreadyallied, and nothing can separate them from each other. Nature and women sharecommon features, even similar fate, they ally together to confront inequalityin a patriarchal society.
Chapter Three Nature andwomen under Patriarchal Society’s oppression
Eco-feminists believe that nature and women are the basis of existenceand development of human beings. However, in a man-dominated world, nature andwomen belong to the oppressed objects. On the one hand, human beingscontinuously claim resources and exploit benefits from nature for their owninterest. Then nature becomes victim to man’s desire. On the other hand, menalways stand in a higher position to dominate women, and women are reduced tosacrificial lambs of men’s misbehaving.
3.1Oppression on Nature
Human’s oppression over nature shows in the aspects of making use ofnature, consuming and hurting nature. In the development of human society,nature has taken a terrible toll. Forests suffer in over-exploitation, 2,000square meters’ forests are destroyed every minute, according to the FAO. TheUNEA estimates that 35% soil land are threaten by becoming deserts. With therapid development of industrialization and urbanization, the behaviors thathuman beings squeeze nature become increasingly fierce. Species are becomingextinct at the fastest rate ever recorded. Douglas J. McCauley, a famousecologist in University of California, says that, given the current trends, “weare probably sitting on the cliff of mass extinctions”(Science, 2015.1).Violating the laws of nature, plundering everything unscrupulously, along withserious air pollution, water shortage, mining resource exhaustion, biochemicalpollution and so on, nature endures uncountable sufferings made by people. Allthese done by human beings are for their own benefits and gains. Just likeEco-feminists hold that nature’s position of the “others” exist so as women. Ifthere is no awareness of protecting and respecting nature in human being’sminds, nature will not share equal status with man and the oppression overnature will not come to an end.
3.2Oppression on Women
Womensuffer the same fate as nature’s. As nature suffers the oppression, in TheJilting of Granny Weatherall, the heroine Granny Weatherall is alsooppressed. In a patriarchal society, women are defined as the passive selecteditems instead of active actors. Eco-feminists hold that in the patriarchalsociety men and women are in a relationship of being active and passive, and ofbeing dominating and compliant. This patriarchy culture forced womento belong to men and bow to masculine and patriarchy. Women just wait men’schoice and can not avoid the fate of passively waiting and being jilted.
3.2.1Granny’s fate of passive waiting
WhenGranny Weatherall is twenty years old, “put out the white veil”, “set out thewhite cake for a man”(Katherine Anne Porter, 1965:82), all these she has donefor her first lover George, in order to wait for George to show up and to beher bridegroom. At her wedding day, the only thing she can do is just waitingfor him with all her love and hope, even heart and soul. She stands in thechurch to wait man’s choice. If the man does not choose her, nothing would saveher broken heart at that moment. Waiting man’s choice is not the only tragicthing in her lifetime. When she is sixty years old, “Granny Weatherall had feltvery old, finished, and went around making farewell trips to see her childrenand grandchildren.”(Katherine Anne Porter, 1965:82), which shows that she hasspent so much time in preparing for death. During that period of preparationfor death, Granny Weatherall is authentically waiting for the coming of death.She merely waits for it and tastes bitterness of waiting for death, but shedoes not do anything to recuperate or do something to finish spiritualsufferings. Though she feels that she is old and weak enough to die, in hertraditional concept, she still waits death to come instead of choosing death.At her last day, Granny Weatherall waits God’s sign. “God, give a sign!”(KatherineAnne Porter, 1965:89) She needs that sign to prove her lifetime efforts andgain affirmation from God and then being secured to go to heaven instead ofhell. “Not every onethat saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but hethat doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven”(Bible: New Testament: Matthew, 7:21) Christian holds that only peoplewho do the pleasure of Father in Heaven can go into the kingdom of heaven, noteveryone who says Lord, Lord to God. Granny Weatherall is a pious christian.Everything she does follows the dogma. Therefore, until the last day of herlife, she still needs to wait god’s sign or judge. Her whole life is hangedover by the fate of passively waiting.
3.2.2Granny’s fate of being jilted
In addition to her fate of passive waiting,Granny Weatherall is also subjected to the fate of being jilted. George’sdisappearance on the wedding day indicates that she is jilted. “Plenty of girlsget jilted.”(Katherine Anne Porter, 1965:84) She consoles herself by thinkingthat other girls are like her. However, such a thing also reflects that in apatriarchal society women are the jilted object. Women’s love is not preciouswhich can be despised and refused mercilessly. Men have right to choose womenfreely, but women do not; men are in a position to jilt women randomly, butwomen just own the destiny of being jilted. Young husband John’s death broughtthis woman into plight. John passes away, leaving three children to GrannyWeatherall. She is just a domestic slave or fertility machine to somedegree, which is like some men’scontempt : “Woman is just a uterus.” (Simone de Beauvoir, 1997:2) Becauseof John’s left, she is jilted again and her life comes down into the dumpsagain. She can not restart her own new life but to play the role of a mother.Being constrained by family and children, she can not pursue her own happinessbut to accept the fate her husband brought and suffer the painful feelingof being jilted once again. God does not give Granny Weatherall any sign at herlast day. “For the second time there was no sign.”(Katherine Anne Porter,1965:89), which is cruel to a pious Christian. God does not appreciate GrannyWeatherall’s life and refuses to bring her to heaven. Following the demand ofpatriarchy, she plays an understanding wife and loving mother very well. Butfinally she is still jilted. This time is by God, the most powerful man in theworld. God’s ignorance gets all her hope and belief smashed, “Oh, no, there’snothing more cruel than this-I’ll never forgive it.”(Katherine Anne Porter,1965:89)
Passive waiting or being jilted is women’s predestinationin a patriarchal society. Domination or contempt is men’s oppression on women.Everything that men plunder from women is because of their desire for controland subjugation. Eco-feminists think that a patriarchal society continuouslyputs women in the status of being dominated and belittled and suppresses themin a long time for various reasons such as economy and selfishness, which islike human society exploits nature mercilessly for the same causes.Therefore, both nature and women are under the oppression of the society whichdoes not show respect for femininity.
Chapter Four Resistance ofnature and women
4.1Punishment on society from nature
Always neglecting toconsider the tolerance capacity of nature and irreversible influence on nature,human society greedily explores the rare limited natural resources to pursuethe greatest business profit. Irreversible influence on nature made by humansociety may cause a loss which man can not undertake or compensate. Once thedamage and exploitation which man make on nature are exceeding nature’sendurance, nature will revenge back on human society.If human proceed their activities but not follow nature’s rules, they willdefinitely get punishment. Global Warming makes glaciers melt and sea levelrise, which seriously endanger the safety of coastal cities. Drought takesplace frequently in many places, some areas in Europe and America are sufferingthe greatest drought throughout history. Air pollution results in hazes damagepeople’s health and stand storms sweep over Asia in recent years. Greenhousegas emissions let blue sky disappears, aggravating environmental pollutionsimultaneously.
4.2Inner appeals from women
As the collation ofnature, women also bear enormous oppression from a patriarchal society. Theoppression over women comes from both spiritual beliefs and physicalsufferings. In The Jilting of Granny Weatherall, Katherine Anne Porterdescribes life experiences of Granny Weatherall who bears miseries bothmentally and physically in a patriarchal society.
4.2.1Granny’s physical resistance
After her young husband’sdeath, Granny Weatherall does not seek for male’s consolation or help likemarrying John soon after being jilted by George any more. She determines tocontrol her life by herself instead of by any other man and chooses to supporther family by using her own hands. She breaks the traditional image of ahousewife who is always considered as a fertility machine or a domestic slave.A patriarchal society holds that women should be angels in the house instead oflabors outside as men. But Granny Weatherall undertakes physical work which isalways done by men, “Fenced in a hundred acres”, “digging the post holesherself”, “clamping the wires”, “riding country roads in the winter”(KatherineAnne Porter, 1965:83), all these heavy manual labor are done by GrannyWeatherall. She tilled the land by herself instead of relying on male support,and at the same time she successfully made all things very well. GrannyWeatherall is no longer that young woman with the peaked Spanish comb and thepainted fan. She challenges conservative thoughts on women and changes herprevious image of being beautiful to please men into a resistant woman whobecomes stronger and stronger. At this moment, Granny Weatherall is a woman whophysically resists the patriarchal society. Previously, her life came into thelow ebb twice and both miseries because of man. Currently, Granny Weatherallrefuses any man’s break in her life. Owing to her physical resistance, noman dominates her in the following years and no man can bring her anysufferings which can destroy her life any more. She breaks up traditionalsocial constrains of women and uses her own hands to earn a good living.
4.2.2 Granny’s spiritual awakening
Physical resistance cannot save her tragic destiny. Though she is no longer controlled by men, GrannyWeatherall is still controlled by God who is viewed as the most powerful man inthe spiritual world. After being neglected by god twice, Granny Weatherall isimmersed in enormous grief, “she could not remember any other sorrow. Becausethis grief wiped them all away.”(Katherine Anne Porter, 1965:89) At last fewminutes of her life, Granny Weatherall had her spiritual awakening. She choosessuicide, “She stretched herself with a deep breath and blew out the light.”(KatherineAnne Porter, 1965:89) In Christian, human beings are not allowed to finishtheir life by themselves, which is considered as a sin. By Christian doctrine,only God can determine man’s death. But Granny Weatherall decides her death byherself, which shows that she gets rid of fetters of male religion and does notbelieve God any more. In her opinion, all things she has done for lifetimeare right and meet the demand of the patriarchal society. But she isignored by God who does not give her any sign to save her. Therefore, sherealizes that she needs to decide her life by herself rather than any otherperson. Passive waiting or being jilted destroyed her happiness. At the endof her life, the hope of being saved broke up again. All these inequalitygenerates her final spiritual awakening of women consciousness. Choosingsuicide is her resistance against the whole patriarchal society. No man candecide her life or death except herself. No male symbols can control herdecision. She is the only one who has absolute control of her life. Thisbehavior symbolizes her spiritual emancipation. She has already realized herown value that can not be denied or neglected.(加入基督教也是父权象征)
Granny Weatherallresists the patriarchal society both physically and spiritually. She choosesdeath finally, which proves that she awakens and controls her life at last fewminutes. In patriarchy, women needs to realize their own value and resistany form of inequality and live with women’s resistance. Just like nature, oncethe human society destroys nature recklessly, nature will resist human societyby punishing them. Both nature and women can not stay away from resistanceto protect themselves.
Chapter Five Conclusion
5.1Significance in gender relationship
Interpreting The Jilting of Granny Weatherall from the angel ofEco-feminism reveals new thought in gender relationship. Patriarchal society ismorbid social structure where men have absolute priority, and women are in theposition of “others” under various suppression. According to Eco-feminists, women,approaching nature more easily than men, have innumerable links with nature.Both women and nature are considered as the symbols of femininity, so theoppression over women is equal to the oppression on nature, and all theseoppression can be viewed as despise on femininity. The demand that women shouldbe respected by society is not only the appeals from inner world of women butalso the need in social progress. Women and all symbols of Femininity shouldget emancipation from masculine privileges. They should realize their valueswhich benefit to social development and help establish a harmonious socialstructure and resist to get rid of any forms of control and domination thatconstraint freedom.
5.2Significance in relevance between human and nature
Becauseof intimate relationship between women and nature, after interpreting thelifetime of Granny Weatherall, it is easy to think of the conditions of nature.Eco-feminists think that nature shares the same fate with women which is alwaysunder patriarchy oppression. In the view of Eco-feminism, nature should berespected by human instead of being destroyed or dominated mercilessly. As thesymbol of femininity, nature’s damage from society is also viewed as damage onfemininity. Men should stop domination on women, therefore, human should notdestroy nature in any forms. Following the Eco-feminism, in order to build up anew harmonious relationship between human and nature, human should be aware ofthe equality between nature and themselves and give up the conquerable anddominated conception.
Natureor women, both of them need equal treatment and full respect. Domination,control, ethnic constrains or any other forms of oppression on them shoulddisappear and never return. Then, men and women willequally share the society together, while the relationship between human andnature will be in remission and they will develop harmoniously.
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