What Lies Behind Family Relationships " AUTHOR: Eudora Welty" SHORT STORY: « Why I Live at the P.O. »" BIOGRAPHY: According to the entry « Eudora Welty » found on Wikipedia, Eudora Alice Welty was an American author and photographer, well-known for working on the South American theme. She began higher education at the University of Wisconsin, then went to New York, where she studied at Columbia University until 1931. Unable to find a job on the East Coast because of unemployment due to the Great Depression, she went back to her her native city Jackson, Mississippi. She started to publish short stories in magazines from 1936 and rapidly acquired notoriety as a short story writer, managing to carefully describe the culture and the racial issues of the South. Each publication of her short stories collections was considered as a literary event. In 1956, her novel The Pounder Heart, adapted by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov, achieved great success on Broadway. In 1975, her enchanting novel The Robber Bridegroom became a musical. In 1973, Eudora Welty received the Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Optimist’s Daughter. Three years earlier, she published a collection of photographs that she had taken herself in the years 1930 and 1940, One Time, one Place: Mississippi in the Depression: a work intending to depict the harsh living conditions in Mississippi during the Great Depression. In 1984, at the request of Harvard University Press, she put on paper a lecture that she gave the year before to the students: the work became a bestseller. She died of pneumonia in 2001. " SHORT STORY (PART 1): The plot in « Why I Live at the P.O. » starts off with Sister’s sister Stella-Rondo returning to the family home on the Fourth of July after lea... ... middle of paper ... ...d as a National Historic Landmark. " THREE PIECES OF INFORMATION I WOULD LIKE TO FIND OUT ABOUT EUDORA WELTY: Why did she never marry? Would her work have been different if she had stayed in New York? Did she have problems with her family like her protagonist Sister?" HYPOTHETICAL INTRODUCTION: Eudora Welty’s short story « Why I Live at the P.O. » is a story of family relationships. The narrator, Sister, imposes her point of view to the reader about the disturbing return of her sister, Stella-Rondo. By confronting Stella-Rondo, Sister gradually becomes a stranger to her family, and eventually leaves the family home to live in the post office where she works. In this paper, I will question the point of view of the narrator, who is rather unreliable. Also, I will analyze how denial can lead to isolation. Finally, I will study how Welty’s use of irony affects the story.
Good Afternoon Ms. McCafferty, I made this appointment because I passionately believe that the book, Life is so good written by George Dawson and Richard Glaubman should be on the Carey booklist for Year 9 students. Life is so good is a magnificent part biography, part autobiography of a 103 year old black man named George Dawson who went to school to learn to read and write when he was 98 years old.
In another work of Welty’ we are depicted the character of a seemingly kind, charitable young Campfire girl, named Marion, who is sent to an old age home. Yet what we do not know is that Marion has another side to her besides the bright, vibrant young girl that she is. We soon come to see this side of her as she sprint from the old folks home, “ Under the prickly shrub she stopped and quickly, without being seen, retrieved a red apple she had hidden there.” (“A Visit of Charity). The reader now realizes the true conniving ways that Marion withholds in the beginning.
The critical essay "The Strategy of Edna Earle Ponder" by Marilyn Arnold expresses the idea that Edna Earle Ponder is sizing up the woman who has come to the Beulah Hotel, while her car is being fixed, as a potential new wife for Uncle Daniel. Arnold believes that the "narrative ear" is important character in the novel. Arnold argues that the listener is a young female who is naïve and shy and that Dean Earle utilizes her self-professed intelligence to get Uncle Daniel married again. By marrying again Uncle Daniel would come out of his reclusivness and be happy once more. She states:"Throughout the novel the adroit Edna Earle travels the course of her story selecting details meant to charm and impress a young woman and at the same time she sets forth the expectations that would govern a liaison between her guest and Daniel"(Arnold 70).
In Eudora’s autobiography “One Writer’s Beginnings” she talks about a little girl’s love with books and how she began to love them. She correctly stated her story through numerous ways, such as the story’s format. Welty conveys the intensity and the value of these experiences through formating the autobiography by cause and effect, chronological order, and finally through emphasizing certain points throughout the story.
The outspoken narrator of Eudora Welty's "Why I Live at the P.O.," known to us only as "Sister," intends to convince us--the world at large--that her family has "turned against" her, led on by her sister, itella-Rondo. To escape her family, she explains, she has left home and now lives at the P.O., where she is postmistress. As she delivers her monologue, the narrator reveals more about herself than she intends. We see her as a self-centered young woman who enjoys picking fights and provoking melodramatic scenes in which she is the center of attention. Not too far into the story, we realize that others in the family behave as melodramatically as Sister does, and we begin to wonder why. The story's setting may provide the answer: In a small town in Mississippi, sometime after World War II and before television, entertainment is scarce. The members of this family cope with isolation and boredom by casting themselves in a continning melodrama, with each person stealing as many scenes as possible.
This story describes main character’s uneventful life in China Grove is interrupted by the arrival of her sister, Stella-Rondo, who has just left her husband and returned to the family home in Mississippi. Because Stella-Rondo destroyed her sister’s uneventful life and broke her relationships with everyone in this family, her sister who is speaker in this story had to move to the post office for living. Eudora Welty’s ‘Why I Live at the P.O’ makes use of symbolism as a mechanism of communicating the many themes that surround it. Welty’s story incorporates the radio and the post office as important symbols that enable the author to tie together and give meaning to the narrative presented. The radio is used to symbolize the increase in isolation. It presented the only way through which the family could be able to gain any form of knowledge or the outside world since they did not want to go back to the Post Office again. When Sister leaves with the radio, she goes away with the one form of equipment that could be used to link the family to the general world. With the radio gone, the family is thrown in further isolation. The post office is also symbol of isolation. It epitomizes the isolation faced by Sister as she vows not to go back to her family home. She vows to stay in the post office until her sister or family could come and seek to establish relationship with her. Through her words “Here I am, and here I stay” (Rubenstein & Larson 941) Sister asserts that she is going to be happy at the post office. The post office also symbolizes isolation in that it enhances the stance that the family took. Through pointing out that they will not send or receive letters anymore, the Sister’s family stamp heir isolation from Sister and the rest of the world. When Sister said that the only way that the family
Through attention to detail, repeated comparison, shifting tone, and dialogue that gives the characters an opportunity to voice their feelings, Elizabeth Gaskell creates a divide between the poor working class and the rich higher class in Mary Barton. Gaskell places emphasis on the differences that separate both classes by describing the lavish, comfortable, and extravagant life that the wealthy enjoy and compares it to the impoverished and miserable life that the poor have to survive through. Though Gaskell displays the inequality that is present between both social classes, she also shows that there are similarities between them. The tone and diction change halfway through the novel to highlight the factors that unify the poor and rich. In the beginning of the story John Barton exclaims that, “The rich know nothing of the trials of the poor…” (11), showing that besides the amount of material possessions that one owns, what divides the two social classes is ability to feel and experience hardship. John Barton views those of the upper class as cold individuals incapable of experiencing pain and sorrow. Gaskell, however proves Barton wrong and demonstrates that though there are various differences that divide the two social classes, they are unified through their ability to feel emotions and to go through times of hardship. Gaskell’s novel reveals the problematic tension between the two social classes, but also offers a solution to this problem in the form of communication, which would allow both sides to speak of their concerns and worries as well as eliminate misunderstandings.
Winning many awards including the Pulitzer, readers wondered why and how Cormac McCarthy wrote The Road. McCarthy was motivated by a quiet day with his son in El Paso, Texas. When he looked outside, he saw no one, and the land felt like it had been abandoned for years. What started off as a short two page story on that moment soon became a novel. In this story, McCarthy is able to reflect his own relationship with his son and portray the love and hope between a father and his son in times of desperation. He is able to develop multiple themes and lessons from his writing, but one stood out most. In The Road, Cormac McCarthy depicts that in a world full of death and desperation, faith and
Death and dying is an inescapable process that all humans will face at some time in life, whether it is the death of a friend or family member. After the experience of death comes the process of grievance, which is the coping with the loss of the loved one. “The Optimist’s Daughter”, is a novel written by Eudora Welty and is based on a girl named Laurel McKelva Hand and the struggles with grief. Laurel utilizes memory to overcome the grief she experiences, resulting from the loss of her family.
This article illuminates the life of Elizabeth Jane Cochran who would later on be acknowledged by pen name of Nellie Bly to the world. The story happens to report on why she really ought to be entitled the term of American heroine given all of her newspaper articles that hit hard to the lives of the helpless for all intents and purposes. It was a regrettable fate for her existence to be cut short by an illness when it had ceaselessly endeavored to speak out with a rebellious tone to the rising struggles unknown yet to the many masses in the United States stuck in constraints of their intimate
How much time is wasted every day? In "Our Town" by Thorton Wilder two children destined to marry go through life ignorant and blind but, when confronted with death their eyes are opened revealing the small things in life they never get to enjoy again. Furthermore, In an excerpt from "Macbeth" life is depicted as a brief, fragile candle that soon dies and is lost in the shadows. Lastly, In an excerpt from "Endymion, it is told that life is full of highs and lows, and to enjoy what time is gifted. The passages all create a similar theme about living life to the fullest by emphasizing the brevity of life and the time wasted on trivial matters, as well as the importance of enjoying the small things in life.
Eudora Welty was born on April 13, 1909 in Jackson, Mississippi. It is very evident in Welty’s writing style that she is from the South. Not only does the setting of the story tell the reader that, but the dialogue confirms it for the reader as well. Eudora Welty is one of America's most distinguished writers; she had a way of painting detailed pictures in ones’ mind with words. It was no surprise to me when I learned that she was also a photographer. All of Welty’s stories were written by herself out of experiences she lived through and was touched by.
Her life was very successful and helpful to women around the world. Elizabeth taught at the London School of Medicine for Women, for 23 years of her life. Before that she had finally got her M.D. from the University of Paris. She married her husband, James George Skelton Anderson, in 1871. They had 3 children but one of their daughters died of Meningitis, when she was young. Her 2 other children were a boy and a girl. Her daughter, named Louisa, was obviously named after Elizabeth’s mother, and the girl’s grandmother. Louisa decided to follow in her mother’s footsteps and became a doctor. She also wrote a biography about her mother’s life in 1939. Elizabeth lived until she was 81 years old. Many women look up to her for everything that she did for today’s world. She is such an inspiration, even still today.
...that so many children read and loved her books. But when she was seventy-six she decided to stop writing and spend more time with Almanzo on their farm.
Tears threaten to stream down my flushed face. With a huff, I turn from him and rush home, jaw jutting out in defiance. The moment I close the door, the tears give away. My parents rush over to me, concern written all over their faces. My mom hugs me and consoles me, while my dad pulls open the door and charges over to the bully. I smile, because I know that my parents will protect me no matter what. Family support plays an important role in a child’s mental and emotional stability. In Jennifer Niven’s All the Bright Places, family support is a major theme throughout the text when looking at the families of both Finch and Violet.