GROWING UP (Essay from "Why I Live At the P.O.) Many times we feel that our family is against us or no one else cares for us. We even feel there is favoritism or preferences in our family, especially among other siblings. Most of the time it is our immaturity or jealously within ourselves that leads us to these conclusions. Moreover if we neglect others for our own selfish reasons, or if we choose to see things only from our point of view we usually end up by ourselves, longing for the presence of our family. In Eudora Welty’s “Why I Live at the P.O.”, the main character Sister, cannot step outside of her own perspective and is unable to understand the reality of the events taking place around her, therefore making her an unreliable narrator. 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].” (108) 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.During the course of the story we see many references that Sister is envious, even jealous of Stella-Rondo. Sister thinks that because “Stella-Rondo is exactly twelve months to the day younger [than she is] that she’s spoiled.” (108) A person exactly one year younger than another sibling is no more or less spoiled than the other person. Sister says Stella-Rondo has “always had anything in the world [she]wanted.” (108) This seems to bother Sister because she thought she never got everything she wanted. “Papa-Daddy give [Stella-Rondo] this gorgeous Add-a-pearl necklace” (108). There are...
