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Situational Irony
Definition of Stream of Consciousness
Stream of consciousness is a style or technique of writing that tries to capture the natural flow of a character's extended thought process, often by incorporating sensory impressions, incomplete ideas, unusual syntax... read full definition
Stream of consciousness is a style or technique of writing that tries to capture the natural flow of a character's extended thought process, often by incorporating... read full definition
Stream of consciousness is a style or technique of writing that tries to capture the natural flow of a character's... read full definition
Stream of Consciousness
Explanation and Analysis—Stream of Consciousness :
Stream of consciousness is more than a stylistic choice in "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall"—it is the story’s lifeblood. Porter uses this technique to immerse the reader in the immediacy of Granny’s inner world, where time distorts, memory loops, and language strains to keep up with emotion. The story doesn’t follow a conventional plot, instead following the winding, unfiltered movement of thought as Granny’s mind unspools. This approach becomes especially powerful in moments like this one:
Hapsy came up close and said, ‘I thought you’d never come’... They leaned forward to kiss, when Cornelia began whispering from a long way off, ‘Is there anything you want to tell me?’
Here, the boundary between memory and present disintegrates. Granny imagines a reunion with her long-dead daughter even as her living daughter whispers at her bedside. There is no signal or transition—just the continuous flow of thought, where time, space, and identity collapse into each other.
This disorientation isn’t just Granny’s—it becomes the reader’s. Porter uses stream of consciousness not to explain, but to immerse, mimicking the fragmentation of mind at the edge of death. The technique slows time, postpones emotional revelations (like the full weight of the jilting), and creates a dreamlike fugue in which reality and recollection blur. Porter honors the chaos of Granny’s consciousness rather organizing it. In doing so, the story doesn’t just describe the experience of dying; it enacts it.
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