While the beginning of the story includes a multitude of character on character dialogue, as Granny’s illness spreads, she can no longer comprehend anyone in the room and no one can understand her. Granny understands that Cornelia is trying to talk to her, but she can not discern what she is trying to say. Porter uses this lack of dialogue to demonstrate how alone Granny feels while nearing death. When she says to Cornelia “I’ve been telling you –“ (45) the reader gets a sense that Granny is helpless and a confused. Along with Cornelia, her mouth seemed to have “moved urgently in strange shapes,” which also made Granny very frustrated. Without the lack of dialogue in the structure, the reader would not be able to have a full understanding of
