Dealing with reality is a profound and difficult obstacle to overcome, but in life everyone is faced with it. Although it may come in any shape or form such as death or a breakup in a relationship, it has an important theme in many stories throughout literature. Katherine Porter's short story "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" and Tim O'Brien's short story "The Thing's They Carried", use common theme of dealing with reality. Granny Weatherall had to deal with the reality that she was never going to forgive George for jilting her and Jim Cross had to realize that he needed to let go of Martha and deal with the fact that he is in a war instead of with her. There are many examples in both stories that symbolize this theme.
             In "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" Ellen Weatherall is an elderly woman who is on her deathbed; she has always been a strong willed and an independent woman, she had gone through being left at the alter by George who she was going to marry, and her husband John who died. After the death of John she was left with three kids to care and provide food for, this is how Katherine Anne Porter shows that Granny is an intelligent and strong willed woman who is still depended upon by her children for advice: "She wasn't too old yet for Lydia to be driving eighty miles for advice when one of the children jumped the track, and Jimmy still dropped in and talked things over: "Now, Mammy, you've a good business head, I want to know what you think of this?..." Old Cornelia couldn't change the furniture around without asking. Little things, little things!" (Porter 445). This example clarifies two attributes of Granny one is that she was wise and her children have always felt comfortable asking her for advice because they trust her. Secondly that Granny is used to having control over many aspects of her life due to the fact that she has...