On the Fourth of July, Sister’s monotonous life in China Grove, Illinois is abruptly interrupted by the arrival of her young sister, Stella-Rondo, who has just left her husband, Mr. Whitaker. It turns out that Sister had previously dated Mr. Whitaker before Stella-Rondo even became engaged to him. When Stella-Rondo arrives to the home, she is accompanied by Shirley-T., a little girl Stella-Rondo claims is her legally adopted daughter. Sister places the notion that she does not believes Shirley T. is actually Stella- Rondo’s adopted daughter, but actually her biological daughter, and uses this notion to challenge Stella-Rondo. A big sibling rivalry is created in the house hold that actually tears the family apart. Stella- Rondo tries to turn …show more content…
She often addresses the audience directly to call attention to particularly deplorable offenses. When Stella-Rondo first arrives in a hat that Sister finds ugly, Sister addresses the reader, saying, “I wish you could see it” (660 Welty). Sister attempts to garner sympathy and understanding from the reader by drawing them directly into the story. When she obtains this sympathy from the reader, it is easy to convey anything in her light so the audience will understand as well as stand by her point of view. For instance, Stella-Rondo accuses Sister of ridiculing Uncle Rondo’s kimono stating “Sister has been devoting this solid afternoon to sneering out my bedroom window at the way you look” (665 Welty). Sister then calls on the reader to validate her claim that she was actually sticking up for her uncle as she addresses the audience asking “Do you remember who it was really said that?” (665 Welty). She is pointing the finger at Stella-Rondo undoubtedly in this query for before this incidence Stella-Rondo had said “I simply declare that Uncle Rondo looks like a fool in it..” (663 Welty). It can sometimes come to question whether or not Sister is telling the truth to the reader. When gaining the audiences affections and sympathy, she has the power to manipulate the story in anyway desired. This manipulation and trust concern is the central reason why she is an unreliable …show more content…
The communication is poor in the family; deliberate parodies of the truth come to be simpler approaches of communication than honesty and directness. In place of lucid exchanges, family members embrace prejudices, accusations, negativity and suspicions. Such constancy advocates that this sort of behavior has become habit for the majority of the family. Stella-Rondo has become very skilled at the art of “double-dealing” with the family. When Stella-Rondo introduces Shirley-T. as her adopted daughter, Sister makes an automatic assumption it’s a lie. Sister takes one solid look at Shirley-T and says “…she was the spit-image of Papa-Daddy if he’d cut off his beard…” (660 Welty). However, Sister’s assumptions about Shirley-T. does not matter to her family’s beliefs about what the truth might be. The family full heartedly trusts and believes Stella-Rondo’s story about Shirley-T. being her legally adopted child, probably because Stella-Rondo says “…Shirley-T. is adopted, I can prove it” as soon as she come in contact with her mother (660 Welty). This first moment of contact with the mother is crucial; it gives Stella-Rondo a chance to create a bias for the family to feed on. The family strictly embraces what allegory they perceive first. Stella-Rondo has mastered being the first to get her word in, leaving Sister in the shadow. Another example of the mother embracing the first story that comes to her
Even though their children had gone through such harassment, both Rex and Rose Mary completely disregarded the situations they experienced. At times, both parents even enforced such acts in order to avoid trouble and to avoid being moved out into another place. After Rose Mary was aware of the incident with Uncle Stanley sexually assaulting Jeannette, Jeannette states, “[Mom] said that sexual assault was a crime of perception” (184). Posterior to the incident of Erma sexually assaulting Brian, Jeannette’s father also states, “I don’t care what happened!” (147). These two quotations clearly shows the harassment Brian and Jeannette suffered; moreover, it evidently shows the parents’ negligence towards the children. They both completely disregarded what had happened to both Brian and Jeannette solely for their defective idealism and to avoid confrontation with the individuals involved; therefor, Rex and Rose Mary were inadequate to raise their
The mother and daughter have a very distant relationship because her mother is ill and not capable to be there, the mother wishes she could be but is physically unable. “I only remember my mother walking one time. She walked me to kindergarten." (Fein). The daughter’s point of view of her mother changes by having a child herself. In the short story the son has a mother that is willing to be helpful and there for him, but he does not take the time to care and listen to his mother, and the mother begins to get fed up with how Alfred behaves. "Be quiet don't speak to me, you've disgraced me again and again."(Callaghan). Another difference is the maturity level the son is a teenager that left school and is a trouble maker. The daughter is an adult who is reflecting back on her childhood by the feeling of being cheated in life, but sees in the end her mother was the one who was truly being cheated. “I may never understand why some of us are cheated in life. I only know, from this perspective, that I am not the one who was.” (Fein). The differences in the essay and short story show how the children do not realize how much their mothers care and love
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….
...en-year-old girl”. She has now changed mentally into “someone much older”. The loss of her beloved brother means “nothing [will] ever be the same again, for her, for her family, for her brother”. She is losing her “happy” character, and now has a “viole[nt]” personality, that “[is] new to her”. A child losing its family causes a loss of innocence.
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.
The author clearly shows how his childhood effected his adulthood, making in a living example of what he is writing about allowing the audience to more easily trust what he is writing about. Instead of using factually evidence from other dysfunctional family incidences, the author decides to make it more personal, by using his own life and comparing family ideas of the past to the present.
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.
The author happens to tell a family whom they regard the father as a stranger. The
Lori was the first one to leave for New York City after graduation, later, Jeanette followed her and moved into her habitat with her. Jeanette promptly found a job as a reporter, the two sisters were both living their dream life away from their miserable parents. It wasn’t difficult for them since they cultured to be independent and tough. Everything was turning out great for them and decided to tell their younger siblings to move in with them, and they did. Jeanette was finally happy for once, enjoying the freedom she had and not having to be moved every two weeks. She then found a guy whom she married and accustomed her lifestyle. Furthermore, her parents still couldn’t have the funds for a household or to stay in stable occupation, so they decided to move in with Jeanette and her siblings. Jeanette at that moment felt like she was never going to have an ordinary life because her parents were going to shadow her.
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
Is Gender the same thing as Sex? This topic is complicated because many people confuse these two as the same thing but they are very two different things. There are several Cultural Myths about Gender and Sex. Gary Colombo, who wrote: “Thinking Critically, Challenging Cultural Myths” who explains that a cultural myth is a shared set of customs, values, ideas, and beliefs, as well as a common language. In “Sisterhood is Complicated” by Ruth Padawer who is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine, focusing on gender and social issues in “Sisterhood is Complicated” she shows many of the Stereotypes about Gender and Sex and how they are unmistakably just cultural myths. It also has how there are positives being trans at an all women
The narrator, Twyla, begins by recalling the time she spent with her friend, Roberta, at the St. Bonaventure orphanage. From the beginning of the story, the only fact that is confirmed by the author is that Twyla and Roberta are of a different race, saying, “they looked like salt and pepper” (Morrison, 2254). They were eight-years old. In the beginning of the story, Twyla says, “My mother danced all night and Roberta’s was sick.” This line sets the tone of the story from the start. This quote begins to separate the two girls i...
Sandy Wilson, the author of Daddy’s Apprentice: incest, corruption, and betrayal: a survivor’s story, was the victim of not only sexual abuse but physical and emotional abuse as well, in addition to being a product of incest. Sandy Wilson’s story began when she was about six years old when her birth father returns home from incarceration, and spans into her late teens. Her father returning home from prison was her first time meeting him, as she was wondered what he looked like after hearing that he would be released (Wilson, 2000, p. 8). Not only was her relationship with her father non-existent, her relationship with her birth mother was as well since she was for most of her young life, cared for by her grandmother and grandfather. When she was told that her birth mother coming to visit she says, “…I wish my mother wouldn’t visit. I never know what to call her so I don’t all her anything. Not her name, Kristen. Not mother. Not anything (Wilson, 2000, p. 4).” This quote essentially demonstrated the relationship between Sandy and her mother as one that is nonexistent even though Sandy recognizes Kristen as her birth mother.
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.
Considering that Margot was given up by her biological parents and then adopted by the Tenenbaum’s when Margot was only two years old, one can easily infer that Margot’s resolution to Erickson’s first psychosocial stage of development did not have a positive resolution. That first crisis stage occurs in infancy and involves trust versus mistrust. At this stage according to Erickson, a child is dependent and at the mercy on those around them. Since Margot had been given up by the people that were suppose...