Eudora Welty's Why I Live At The P. O.?

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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…

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

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