Jazzlyn D. Oyoque Professor Brinkman English 1302 18 May 2024. A House Divided Being tied to the same blood doesn’t always mean happy and mellow. And the perfect child may not be so perfect after all. We don’t always live up to our claims, and others conceal secrets until they are exposed. Eudora Welty’s story “Why I live at the P. O” is about a girl who goes by Sister who is older than the family’s perfect child Stella-Rondo, who has always been the family’s perfect angel compared to her older sister. Stella- Rondo left the house and got married while Sister got a job at the post office. When Stella-Ronda came home after her separation, she arrived with a child she claimed to have adopted. Sister is aware that Stella-Rondo has always been …show more content…
However, Stella-Rondo turned the tables and accused her of not believing her, which upset her grandfather. Sister finally decided enough was enough and all her emotions finally came out and she ran away to her job and went to the post office. In this story, it reflects how words and action can really take a toll on someone, especially when it comes from the people you love. Feeling stuck and knowing that no one will take your side and see where you’re coming from can be a hard pain to have in you every day. When Sister decides that she will start taking little by little to live in the post office, it starts to become her new safe spot for when she has finally had enough. “There I was with the whole entire house on Stella-Rondo’s side and turned against me.” (Pg.53) This was caused by Sister trying to tell her family how she believes the baby is not adopted and in fact Stella-Rondo’s baby, but Stella-Rondo will lie, ad twist words about how Sister and then her whole family believes her and makes Sister look like the bad guy for not believing Stella-Rondo. This story, in certain ways, reminds me of my relationship with my father. As much as I
Although, a mother’s determination in the short story “I Stand Here Ironing” mother face with an intense internal conflict involving her oldest daughter Emily. As a single mother struggle, narrator need to work long hours every day in order to support her family. Despite these criticisms, narrator leaves Emily frequently in daycare close to her neighbor, where Emily missing the lack of a family support and loves. According to the neighbor states, “You should smile at Emily more when you look at her” (Olsen 225). On the other hand, neighbor gives the reader a sense that the narrator didn’t show much affection toward Emily as a child. The narrator even comments, “I loved her. There were all the acts of love” (Olsen 225). At the same time, narrator expresses her feeling that she love her daughter. Until, she was not be able to give Emily as much care as she desire and that gives her a sense of guilt, because she ends up remarrying again. Meanwhile narrator having another child named Susan, and life gets more compli...
In Why I Live at the P.O. something that I discovered to be very ordinary was the confrontation of Stella-Rondo telling lies about the narrator (sister). There are two instances when this happens, the first lie is Stella-Rondo says “Papa-Daddy, Sister says she fails to understand why you don’t cut off your beard” (438 Welty). The second lie is when Stella-Rondo says, “Sister has been devoting this solid afternoon to sneering out my bedroom window at the way you look” (443 Welty). By Stella-Rondo pinning these lies on her sister it turns the family members against her sister and for the family to favor Stella-Rondo over sister. It all started too with sister assuming that Stella-Rondo’s baby is not adopted “She was the spit-image of Papa-Daddy….
The author uses the denial and concealment of truth in order to reiterate that in the closed environment of the household, pampered upbringing only yields to immaturity in the outside world. In the narration, Stella-Rondo easily regains the position of the family “favorite” through the lies she produces and the family’s seeming acceptance of these lies as pure truths. In fact, however, Mama constantly questions these lies. She reprimands Sister for suggesting that Shirley-T is Stella-Rondo’s biological daughter, but she herself wonders how Stella-Rondo could possibly prove that Shirley-T is adopted. Later, she links Shirley-T’s silence and strange behavior to Mr. Whitaker’s consumption of chemicals, suggesting that she knows that Mr. Whitaker is, in fact, Shirley-T’s biological father. The author uses this characterization of Mama in order to show, that rather than not understanding the difference between truth and lies, she prefers one version over another, therefore...
Janie's outlook on life stems from the system of beliefs that her grandmother, Nanny instills in her during life. These beliefs include how women should act in a society and in a marriage. Nanny and her daughter, Janie's mother, were both raped and left with bastard children, this experience is the catalyst for Nanny’s desire to see Janie be married of to a well-to-do gentleman. She desires to see Janie married off to a well to do gentleman because she wants to see that Janie is well cared for throughout her life.
Despite the connection between the girls, Twyla still feels alienated by the others in the shelter. “Nobody else wanted to play with us because we weren’t real orphans with beautiful dead parents in the sky” (10). The status of “real” versus “non-real” orphan becomes surrogate racism in the shelter. The value of this new classification of the girls is elucidated by the lack of distinct race between Twyla and Roberta, as they become united in the condition of living parents. Their race falls second to whatever else is used to alienate
Stella-Rondo brings out jealousy in Sister that causes tension between them. Sister hates that Stella-Rondo married Mr. Whitaker since Sister supposedly had him first. She feels like Stella-Rondo broke them up by lying. Most likely, Sister is upset because she was not the one to end up with the guy she liked, but she displays her feelings childishly. Sister’s snide comments towards her sister are the real reason that Stella-Rondo turns their family against her. Stella-Rondo’s lies about her daughter, Shirley T., increase Sister’s jealous feelings. Stella-Rondo claims that Shirley-T. is adopted, but Sister does not believe her. Sister wants her family to see through Stella-Rondo’s lies and realize that this two-year old child is not adopted. She points out that Shirley-T. is the “spitting image of Papa-Daddy” (359). Sister cannot stand that Stella-Rondo left Mr. Whitaker after only staying married to him for two years. The fact that “the first thing she did was separate! From Mr. Whitaker!” when Stella-Rondo got married and moved away infuriates Sister (359). Consequently, Sister makes sure her family knows that she had him first. In the heat of the moment at the end of the story, Sister starts saying that Mr. Whitaker left Stella-Rondo, not vice versa, which only builds up more tension.
”(594). Clearly Sister has a predisposition toward Stella-Rondo returning for many reasons, and this is the beginning of the conflict that she begins to have with herself. Stella-Rondo returns to the house with a child during the middle of dinner, and Sister is feeling greatly offended by this and shows us her arrogance and dismay that she’s losing the center of attention when she says “There I was over the hot stove, trying to stretch two chickens over five people and a completely unexpected child into the bargain without one moment’s notice. ”(594).... ...
The childhood of Frances Piper consists of inadequate love, loss of innocence and lack of concern, ultimately leading to her disastrous life. As a six year old child, she encounters several traumatic events, explicitly the death of her loved ones and the loss of her innocence. Over the course of one week, there have been three deaths, two funerals and two burials in the Piper family. “Frances was crying so hard now that Mercedes got worried. ‘I want my Mumma to come ba-a-a-a-ack.’”( McDonald 174). As a young child, there is nothing more upsetting than losing a mother. A family is meant to comfort each other to fulfill the loss of a loved one; however, this is not the case in the Piper family. Mercedes, only a year older than Frances, tries to console her even though she herself is worried. The loss of motherly love and affection has a tremendous impact on her future since now her sole guardian, James, expresses no responsibility towards her. Instead, he molests Frances on the night of Kathleen’s funeral to lessen the grief of his lost daughter. As a result “These disturbing experiences plague Frances with overwhelming feelings of low self worth and guilt that haunt h...
The thought of her brothers still being in her former home environment in Maine hurt her. She tried to think of a way to get at least one of her brothers, the sickly one, to come and be with her. She knew that her extended family was financially able to take in another child, and if she showed responsibility, there would be no problem (Wilson, 40). She found a vacant store, furnished it, and turned it into a school for children (Thinkquest, 5). At the age of seventeen, her grandmother sent her a correspondence, and requested her to come back to Boston with her brother (Thinkquest, 6).
“A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty is a short fictional story first published in The Atlantic Monthly in February 1941. Welty was an American short-story writer and novelist. Welty was a photographer before she started writing so her stories were as detailed as her photographs. Some reccurring themes she used in her literary pieces were social prejudice, isolation, and southern living. This short story includes these common themes she favored throughout her works. There are multiple themes in this fictional story. Some themes presented in this story include racism, family, and responsibility. The most prominent theme is the age and perseverance, because the protagonist is predisposed to failure given her age but her tenacity keeps her going.
Lauren Butcher, Ms. Spak, AP Lang. & Comp. 8 April 2024 Eudora Welty’s autobiography “One Writer’s Beginnings” A writer’s beginning can come from anywhere - a traumatic experience, a triumph, love, hate. A common factor among writer’s is their love and passion for reading. These writer’s have a “feeling of insatiability” for reading. Their only fear being “that of books coming to an end.” In this passage from her autobiography, “One Writer’s Beginnings,” Eudora Welty explores the origin of her desire and drive to write by sharing her experiences with her readers as well as those aspiring to become readers and writers themselves.
... scenario of her sister coming to the post office and begging, and at the end of this unrealistic scenario, she clearly declares that she will not have anything to do with her sister. By doing this, she rules out reconciling with her sister and gives up on ever having a relationship with her sister. It seems that, now, Sister is bitter. Most importantly, when Sister says, “But here I am, and here I’ll stay” (49), Welty shows the severe need for all families to work at being a healthy functional family by ending the short story with Sister being alone and bitter at the post office. Human beings need other human beings for survival; without this, we perish.
June-May receives a letter from her twin sisters shortly after her mother’s death. However, her sisters do not know their mother is dead and have been searching for her for years. June-May takes the letter to Auntie Lindo who writes back pretending to be their mother and says that they are coming to visit. June-May protests saying “They’ll think I’m responsible, that she died because I didn’t appreciate her,” (Tan 149). She believes that her sisters will hate her when she shows up without their mother and has to announce her death. As a result, Auntie Lindo writes back announcing the passing of the mother and announces that instead their sister, June-May, will be coming. It is during this trip that June-May fulfills her mother’s dream, “carrying with me her dreams of coming home. I am going to China,” (Tan 147). By doing this she gains another part of her mother. However, it is when June-May reunites with her sisters that she fully becomes one wi...
Marie, who is a product of an abusive family, is influenced by her past, as she perceives the relationship between Callie and her son, Bo. Saunders writes, describing Marie’s childhood experiences, “At least she’d [Marie] never locked on of them [her children] in a closet while entertaining a literal gravedigger in the parlor” (174). Marie’s mother did not embody the traditional traits of a maternal fig...
Aubery Tanqueray, a self-made man, is a Widower at the age of Forty two with a beautiful teenage daughter, Ellean whom he seems very protective over. His deceased wife, the first Mrs. Tanqueray was "an iceberg," stiff, and assertive, alive as well as dead (13). She had ironically died of a fever "the only warmth, I believe, that ever came to that woman's body" (14). Now alone because his daughter is away at a nunnery he's found someone that can add a little life to his elite, high class existence; a little someone, we learn, that has a past that doesn't quite fit in with the rest of his friends.