The short story, “Why I Live at the P.O.”, was written by Eudora Welty and published in 1983. The story begins with Sister explaining the series of events which lead to her living at the P.O. after her sister, Stella-Rondo, had moved back home with her adopted daughter. The story is written in a first person point of view, so Sister has the only voice that is objective. The voices of others are subjective and are very possibly misunderstood. The narrow mindedness and the unsubtlety Sister has towards others shows that she is an unreliable narrator. During the story, Sister hastily questions Stella-Rondo for moving back home with her adopted child. Sister lacks care and understanding for the concerns of her family. The narrow mindedness of Sister hinders her from respectfully listening and/or comprehending others opinions. While staying at the P.O., Sister shows her narrow mindedness by stating, “And if Stella-Rondo should come to me this minute, on bended knees, and attempt to explain the incidents of her life with Mr. Whitaker, I'd simply put my fingers in both my ears and refuse to listen” (Welty 847). The unwillingness of sister to listen to others shows how …show more content…
she is an unreliable narrator. The article, “The One-Sided Narrator in ‘Why I Live at the P.O.’”, written by Sarah Madsen Hardy, speaks on the many ways Sister is unreliable.
Speaking about the conflict between Sister and Stella-Rondo, it is made obvious that most of the resentment Sister has is because she believes Stella-Rondo stole Mr. Whitaker from her. Every opinion is from Sister, and that is stated by Hardy when she wrote, “There is no place in the story where Mama, Papa-Daddy, Uncle Rondo, or especially Stella-Rondo get to present the facts of the feud from their perspectives” (Hardy Web). With only having one side of a story and never hearing other sides can show Sister’s way of controlling the opinion of readers to side with her. Sister is wrongfully convincing readers she is right without ever being aware of the other
side. Sister is unsubtle through the whole story, constantly going on the attack of Stella-Rondo about Shirley-T. Sister tries to convince her whole family to believe Shirley-T isn't adopted, but that she is Stella-Rondo’s biological daughter. In the story, it's seen that Sister has many outbursts and small remarks that are spiteful. Sister’s unsubtlety and spitefulness can be seen when Welty wrote, "Mama, I says, can that child talk?" (Welty 842). Even though she tries, Sister is unable to prove to her family of the many wrongs Stella-Rondo supposedly commits. Continuously failing to manipulate her family to side with her, Sister grabs belongings which she feels entitled to. Starting arguments and deciding to move to the P.O. out of spite, shows she tries to manipulate the reader showing she's unreliable. After reading both the story and the article about Sister and why she now resides at the P.O. with close analyzation, one can conclude that she is a manipulator. Sister uses wrongful actions that are both physical and verbal to turn everyone against Stella-Rondo. Along with Sisters actions, she tries to manipulate the reader by only showing her side of the story. Using guilt and pity to manipulate everyone, Sister truly goes to show her failure as a reliable narrator. Sister uses wrongful actions that are both physical and verbal to turn everyone against Stella-Rondo.
Erin George’s A Woman Doing Life: Notes from a Prison for Women sheds light on her life at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women (FCCW) where she was sentenced for the rest of her life for first-degree murder. It is one of the few books that take the reader on a journey of a lifer, from the day of sentencing to the day of hoping to being bunked adjacent to her best friend in the geriatric ward.
She ponders the importance of what her sister were fighting for, and in the end, whether or not their relentless efforts were made in
The reader is forced into the role of a character that already has some developments. Walton’s sister is a character that exists prior to the story; this can be seen by the way Walton treats his subject. Because the reader is the audience with her, the reader is pushed into that role, but not to become a part of the story, only to develop the relationship with Walton.
Author Eudora Welty, in her Autobiography takes readers back in time to explain how she became an earnest reader. Welty’s purpose is to reveal to readers her undying compassion for reading. She gives readers a detailed flash black with her description and rhetorical strategies. She does this by describing different phenomena that occurred and their influence on her. She uses imagery, repetition and shifts in order to paint a vivid picture of those events in her childhood.
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….
Eudora Welty in her short story “The Little Store,” is attempting to portray the simplicity and innocence of her youth prior to her realization that there was a world beyond her own. Welty foreshadows her realization and loss of innocence even before her transition to an adult.
Eudora Welty is one of the leading American writers of the twentieth century. In her work “The Little Store,” Welty recollects from her memories of growing up. She humbly admitted that she lived a “sheltered life” growing up in the South as a woman. From this perspective, Eudora writes her short story as a means to tell her passage into adulthood.
Life, such a broad yet concise topic. A multitude of different people and cultures offer different opinions on what gives life value and how to obtain satisfaction in our lives. For example, the typical “American Dream” is defined as attaining wealth and success through hard work, while many Spanish cultures consider closeness within a family a valuable trait in life. Whether it is family, success, love, or faith, every citizen in each different culture finds what brings him or her joy and does whatever it takes to reach this satisfaction. There are three specific aspects of my life which make life worth living; these include my faith, my family, and the talents I have been blessed with.
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.
Throughout the story, it has been Sister who has tried to persuade the reader to take her side in the debacle with her family. The truth is that it was Sister who caused the entire dispute that is going on with her obsession to compete with her sister that goes back to her childhood where she feels that Stella-Rondo is spoiled and continues to be spoiled up to the end following Sister’s desperate need for attention.
Sister’s perspective is very self-centered and designed to manipulate the reader for selfish purposes. When the story first begins, Sister is trying to get the reader to see that “Of course [she] went with Mr., Whitaker first…and Stella Rondo broke [them up].” Sister wants the readers to know this piece of information so we will think she is a victim in the story. This is a way of getting us, the readers, on “her side” so we will begin to think like her and dislike the person or people that she dislikes.
In the story, the narrator is forced to tell her story through a secret correspondence with the reader since her husband forbids her to write and would “meet [her] with heavy opposition” should he find her doing so (390). The woman’s secret correspondence with the reader is yet another example of the limited viewpoint, for no one else is ever around to comment or give their thoughts on what is occurring. The limited perspective the reader sees through her narration plays an essential role in helping the reader understand the theme by showing the woman’s place in the world. At ...
The Message of Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Are Real Cool" "We Real Cool" is a short, yet powerful poem by Gwendolyn Brooks that sends a life learning message to its reader. The message Brooks is trying to send is that dropping out of school and roaming the streets is in fact not "cool" but in actuality a dead end street. Brooks conveys her message in an ironic manner, which is presented in the title of the poem. Before actually reading the 10 line poem, the first thing that grabs the reader's attention is the title. After reading the title "We Real Cool" one would assume that the intent of the poem is going to be about a group of people who are fortunate and live a flamboyant lifestyle.
Toronto: Bantam Books, 1987. Print. The. Peterson, Linda H. "'The Feelings and Claims of Little People: Heroic Missionary Memoirs, Domestic(ated) Spiritual Autobiography, and Jane Eyre: An Autobiography." Traditions of Victorian Women's Autobiography: The Poetics and Politics of Life Writing.
The Other Sister is about a family with a sibling that has a developmental disability also known as mildly mentally retardation (MMR), mild developmental disability, or mild intellectual disorder (MID). Carla Tate is our main character that has MMR as a disability. She is a young women, twenty-four years old, with a slender but beautiful appearance. Carla has just graduated from a special education boarding school and is returning home to her family. Carla’s mother (Elizabeth Tate) is overbearingly protective, does not appreciate all of the abilities that Carla has acquired. Her father (Bradley Tate) is a recovering alcoholic who is sympathetic and supportive of Carla, who at the same time has to deal with his domineering wife. Carla has two sisters Heather (who happens to be a lesbian) and Caroline (who is planning a wedding). Carla’s sister quickly bond again upon Carla’s return. They are supportive of Carla and her abilities.