Book Nook Cafe discussion

What's this? BNC's Group Read. All members are encouraged to join in the discussion.

Short Story: Why I Live at the P.O.

Author: Eudora Welty

When: The discussion begins around the 3rd week on October.

Where: The discussion takes place in this thread.

Link to the short Story:
http://art-bin.com/art/or_weltypostof...

I found these questions online. They may help us dig a bit deeper into the short story.
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1.
1. Who is telling the story?

2. This form of narration could be best described as a conversation between the narrator and her audience. What is the technical term for such a one-sided conversation?

2.
1. From the language used in the opening paragraphs comment on the personality of the narrator.

2. What clues about the narrator's personality are conveyed in the following extracts:
* "I was getting along fine with Mama, Papa-Daddy and Uncle Rondo until my sister Stella-Rondo just separated from her husband and came back home again."
* "...Stella-Rondo broke us up. Told him I was one-sided... a deliberate, calculated falsehood: I'm the same."
* "Stella-Rondo is twelve months to the day younger than I am and for that reason she's spoiled."
* "Papa-Daddy gave her this gorgeous Add-a-Pearl necklace..."
* "Stella-Rondo just calmly takes off this hat, I wish you could see it."

3. What is the narrator implying about Mr. Whitaker and yet showing about herself when she says:
"Mr. Whitaker! Of course I went with Mr. Whitaker first, when he first appeared in China Grove..." and then:
"From Mr. Whitaker! This photographer with the popeyes she said she trusted."
Explain how these two statements convey these two different attitudes.

4.
1. At what point in the story does the underlying tension between the two sisters erupt into open feuding?

2. What is the narrator's excuse for this trigger comment and how does it add to our perception of her?

5. One of Eudora Welty's talents as a writer is the use of seemingly small events or things to convey multi- layered ideas. Look carefully at these examples and explain what Welty is showing about the characters or situation in each statement:

1. "So Papa-Daddy l-a-y-s down his knife and fork!"

2. "Stella-Rondo sat there and made up while she was eating breast of chicken."

3. "So I pulled my napkin straight back through the napkin ring and left the table."

4. "Stella-Rondo would say, and started pulling out every one of her eyebrows with some cheap Kress tweezers."

5. "Why, Sister," said Mama. "Here I thought we were going to have a pleasant Fourth of July, and you start right out not believing a word your own baby sister tells you!"
"Just like Cousin Annie Flo. Went to her grave denying the facts of life," I remind Mama."

6. "You ought to see Mama, she weighs two hundred pounds and has real tiny feet."

6. The narrator's use of asides are used to create a relationship with the reader. What is the relationship she wants to develop when she says:
"Stella-Rondo just calmly takes off this hat, I wish you could see it."
"So the first thing Stella-Rondo did at the table was turn Papa-Daddy against me." ... "Papa-Daddy woke up with this horrible yell and right there without moving an inch he tried to turn Uncle Rondo against me." ... "I stood up for Uncle Rondo, please remember." ... "So Stella-Rondo says, "Sister says, 'Uncle Rondo certainly does look like a fool in that pink Kimono!'" Do you remember who it was who really said that?"

Why is she at such great pains to try and develop this relationship? How does this contribute to the effectiveness of the story?

7. This story illustrates a point about short stories - that they do not have to concentrate on major events or issues to be effective. This story is concerned with a single event within a family that took place over a holiday weekend. How effective has the writer been in creating the claustrophobic nature of the family and the community of China Grove?

In the story A Visit of Charity (in: A Curtain of Green & Other Stories) Welty uses allusions, images, similes and metaphors to convey the irony of the title when compared to the reality of the visit. In the opening paragraph Welty foreshadows the reasons for the visit and the harsh reality of the Old Ladies Home with her choice of images.

As a short story writer concerned with creating maximum impact with the minimum of words Eudora Welty has concentrated the tone and message of her story in the choice of words and images used throughout the story.

Read the complete original story and notice the way Eudora Welty uses the minimum of words and the maximum of images to concentrate the ironic commentary she is making about the community and its attitude to the old ladies.

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Discussion Questions

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 In “Why I Live at the P.O.” readers may see a parallel with a parable about a certain prodigal child. How does “Why I Live at the P.O.” function as a prodigal child story?


 Welty’s fiction brings readers into an empathetic engagement with keenly imagined and localized characters. What are some particular ways that Welty creates localized characters?


 Vernacular: expressed or written in the native language of a place. Cite some particular examples of vernacular in the story. What purpose does it serve?


 This story is, at time, very comic. Papa-Daddy’s use of the word “hussy” and Uncle Rondo’s wearing of a kimono are two laugh-out-loud moments. Can you identify particular places when Welty uses humor? Think like a writer – what does she do to create this humor?


 Welty’s fiction is often associated with the South. What are some particular ways Welty conveys a sense of place?


 Welty’s stories capture closely observed lives whose fates echo human life everywhere. Do you feel this story “echoes human life everywhere”? If so, how? If not, why not?

Eudora Welty, left, with Erica Jong January 1980. Jong is regarded as one of the most significant authors to have been produced by the feminist movement.


Eudora Alice Welty (April 13, 1909 – July 23, 2001) was an American author of short stories and novels about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous awards including the Order of the South. She was the first living author to have her works published by the Library of America. Her house in Jackson, Mississippi, is a National Historic Landmark and open to the public as a museum.
Wikipedia

Thank you for the info & link, Alias. The links you've provided have made joining in the discussions a breeze. Thanks again.

Anne Tyler, Big Favorite of mine, has written quite a bit about the influence Welty had on her own writing. While i enjoy the pieces by her that i've read, i'm not nearly as sold. However, i think there are looks into the south that it offers & i appreciate. Looking forward to the discussion.

deb

You're welcome, Deb. I am having a lot of fun with the short stories. I think the discussions have been very good.

This story is super short. I think I am going to try to read it today.

Tonight I read, Why I live at the P.O. It's an odd little story. When I read it I thought it would make a good farce play.

The character are...well characters. They are all a bit zany.

This short story is often taught in college.

I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on it.

My book provided a few definitions that I thought I would post.


Kress- A chain of variety stores.

Flanders Field- American military cemetery in Belgium, established after World War I.

Mammoth Cave- Popular tourist attraction in Kentucky.

I try my hand at a few of the questions.


1. Who is telling the story?

Sister.

2. This form of narration could be best described as a conversation between the narrator and her audience. What is the technical term for such a one-sided conversation?
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I had to look this one up on the net.

The literary term for when a character speaks to the audience and characters can't hear or pretend not to hear is called aside, another term would be a soliloquy.

3. What is the narrator implying about Mr. Whitaker and yet showing about herself when she says:
"Mr. Whitaker! Of course I went with Mr. Whitaker first, when he first appeared in China Grove..." and then:
From Mr. Whitaker! This photographer with the popeyes she said she trusted."
Explain how these two statements convey these two different attitudes.
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She is jealous and hurt that Mr. Whitaker left her for her sister.

I think in the second statement she is trying to show she doesn't care. That Mr. W is not someone she would want.

4. "Stella-Rondo would say, and started pulling out every one of her eyebrows with some cheap Kress tweezers."
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SR is unhappy and under stress. I think there is a word for people who pull out there hair.

Yes. I just looked it up. It's called, Trichotillomania

Here is the wiki on it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichoti...

7. This story illustrates a point about short stories - that they do not have to concentrate on major events or issues to be effective. This story is concerned with a single event within a family that took place over a holiday weekend. How effective has the writer been in creating the claustrophobic nature of the family and the community of China Grove?

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I think this is a great point about short stories. They are microcosms.

I think Welty does a great job at letting the reader know exactly what are the dynamics of this family in just a few short pages.

 Welty’s stories capture closely observed lives whose fates echo human life everywhere. Do you feel this story “echoes human life everywhere”? If so, how? If not, why not?
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I think so. They are characters that we can see people we may know or read about. She uses at times over the top humor, but under that we feel very real people with very real problems.

For example, Uncle Rondo. He is a WWI vet who because of the war is not the person who left. He is emotionally damaged.

Stella Rondo, has broken up with her husband and gone back to live with her family.

Mama- Puts family first and defends her children even when they appear to be lying. Is she deluded or just defending her child?

Papa-Daddy had been growing a beard forever. He keeps reminding Sister that it was because of his "connections" that he was able to get her a job at the P.O.

All in all I thought this short story was interesting. I liked the humorous parts. Uncle Rondo wearing the Stella's negligee. The whole notion of a person moving into the post office to live is also funny.

As I said, while I read this I could see it as a funny farce play on the stage.

Alias, you make a good point about a play based on this. In one exchange, i felt as though it was made for the stage. Indeed, Welty performed quite a feat introducing us to so many distinct characters in such a short period of time. And we felt the indignation right along with Sister. Well done.

I missed a couple of things, noted as you replied to the questions. The first was about SR's tweezing her eyebrows. I took it to be less literal & that she was really just over-tweezing in a "fit". The idea she has trichotillomania hadn't crossed my mind.

There is also a sort of "cutting off one's nose" aspect to the story, from both sides. The belittling from the family led Sister to leave, taking many of their creature comforts, which she had purchased. The flip side is that her family was one of the main users of the P.O., so their absence will hurt business. Maybe back then P.O. closings weren't an issue but today, my first thought was to wonder how long she'd have the job. In both cases, rather self-inflicted injuries.

For me the language set the story in the South and conjured up family members i have known in the past. Some of the expressions, as well, remind me of incidents i've witnessed. This is one of Welty's strong points, the dialogue.

What about those names?!

Madrano wrote: There is also a sort of "cutting off one's nose" aspect to the story, from both sides. The belittling from the family led Sister to leave, taking many of their creature comforts, which she had purchased. The flip side is that her family was one of the main users of the P.O., so their absence will hurt business. Maybe back then P.O. closings weren't an issue but today, my first thought was to wonder how long she'd have the job. In both cases, rather self-inflicted injuries.
..."

Excellent point !

Madrano wrote:What about those names?! .."
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At the start they were a bit confusing. As to sister, I recall in the Tennessee Williams play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof one of the characters was called, Sister Women. I guess it's a southern thing.

Not sure if I liked this one or not, but there sure are lots of things to analyse. I've had about a million thoughts about the characters and their actions already, all of them conflicted. I think this is very skilful on the part of the author as she has landed us right in the middle of a simmering family fight and let's us watch as it boils over, but you as the reader have to do the work in trying to figure out where all these open wounds and old scars come from. We are walking in on a history in progress. I liked this because every family has it's own epic saga behind it, made up of little fights, big conflicts, clashing personalities, large and small events and private togetherness, and I felt we were getting to view something complex and unique to that family, but ultimately familiar to everyone. So I didn't really like the characters, but could absolutely identify the weird dynamics and emotional shorthand families tend to have.

I will have a look at the questions and try to do some answers when I get some more time. I am very much enjoying the discussion of these short stories, regardless of how I feel about the stories themselves. It has been very interesting so far!

Apologies for my wayward apostrophes in that post, the iPad has messed up my grammar and I cannot edit it without a computer!

First of all, Soph, if you posted wayward apostrophes they were lost on me. I'm awful with that particular form of punctuation. So i call your post fine. Still, i know what you mean about iPad & editing it. Pain.

I liked the way you summed up Welty's work in this story. We were drop kicked into it & had to figure out the people with those names while simultaneously figuring out the action. It was kinda fun, now that i think about it.

Something about stories titled this way implores the reader to lightly join in. Another i like is by Alice Monro, "How I Met My Husband." I found a link to it, which surprised me. http://sheppardsflock.weebly.com/uplo... We know we're going to learn the answer to a question we didn't ask but read because we are curious why the author thinks we want to know the answer. Sorta. It's a fun supposition from the author.

ANYway, one sentence which caught my eye was the following, "Stella-Rondo is twelve months to the day younger than I am and for that reason she's spoiled." I think their rivalry is lifelong. Even Sister's birthdays have always been shared with SR! It seems the fact she has had to share everything came as her days of having her family to herself while SR was away ends. Her solutions seems to be to totally leave. Drastic? Or about time?

Soph wrote: "Apologies for my wayward apostrophes in that post, the iPad has messed up my grammar and I cannot edit it without a computer!"

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No need to apologize, Soph. No grammar or spelling police here at BNC. We like a nice relaxed atmosphere. :)

Madrano wrote: " I think their rivalry is lifelong. Even Sister's birthdays have always been shared with SR! It seems the fact she has had to share everything came as her days of having her family to herself while SR was away ends
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Good catch, Deb. I didn't pick up that they shared a birthday.

Madrano wrote:We were drop kicked into it & had to figure out the people with those names while simultaneously figuring out the action. It was kinda fun, now that i think about it.

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We have to keep in mind that we are hearing the story through the eyes of Sister. I don't know that she is a very reliable narrator. She is trying to get the reader on her side from the very start of the story.

Good point, Alias.

Do you think the fact that the events related occurred on the 4th of July is significant? Welty didn't have to set it at any particular time/date but she did. And her narrator declared her own independence. I almost missed that, i must admit. Clever and well understated.

I think she sets the time period. She mentions Flanders. It's around WWI. We know this because of Uncle Rondo. He is a WWI vet who has returned with PTSD or something. He is emotionally damaged.

As to the 4th, I like the independence idea.

This story read to me like a child telling on their sibling - a long list of unfairness and rejection and perceived wrongs. This makes Sister sound childish even though Stella-Rondo also seems insufferable. The mother seems stuck in the middle, it sounds to me like she is trying to temper the bad feeling by dismissing it, but Sister just sees that as her defending the younger daughter. If you could see the story told from Stella-Rondo's point of view she would probably say the mother did not do enough to stop her big sister from picking on her!

Good catch about the shared birthday - I just saw the year between them as meaning they were close enough to be big rivals, but the idea that they share the same birthday makes the situation even worse. I always think your birthday is the one day where it can be all about you, and Sister has been denied even this by Stella-Rondo. These are bad feelings that go right back to when sister was one year old.

Also does anyone else see the significance in the fact that Sister has no Christian name used, but Stella-Rondo does? Even though this may have been a common thing to do in the South, the one daughter being referred to just as Sister makes her sound generic and like she could belong to anyone, but Stella-Rondo has her name and part of it relates directly back to her uncle. She belongs to that family whereas there could be a million 'Sisters' anywhere.

Alias, it's odd that i didn't see the Flanders thing as recent? Indeed, i envisioned the whole story taking place in the late 40s for some reason. And i felt as though Uncle Rondo had been dependent on the family since the war. I agree that he has something we'd today call PTSD.

Soph, interesting thought on the Christian name. My mom came from a family of 5 kids when she lived with them (2 more after she married) and the twins were known as "Sis" & "Bud". (Curiously their aunt & uncle twins are called "Big Sis" and "Big Bud".) We are from northern Oklahoma so i hadn't much thought of it as a southern thing, although family roots are from Kentucky.

ANYway, good catch. I think "sis" is fairly common. "Bud" i've heard from coast to coast, i will add. So, your observation kinda ties into other things we have learned about the family, including the shared birthday. Sister doesn't even seem to have her own name.

I like the idea of Stella-Rondo's POV, too. I'm sure she's right. AND we might learn the truth about that baby! Do you think we "know" by the end of the story?

Madrano wrote: "Alias, it's odd that i didn't see the Flanders thing as recent? Indeed, i envisioned the whole story taking place in the late 40s for some reason. And i felt as though Uncle Rondo had been dependen..."

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"And I very politely took the sewing-machine motor I helped pay the most on to give Mama for Christmas back in 1929, "

If she helped pay for it she must have been working, so it wasn't that long ago.

Sister also says, "

My impression is that the story takes place during the Great Depression. Before WWII.

Sorry, i didn't mean to sound as though i disagreed with your time frame, only that i missed it. I agree, the signs are there, i just missed it. I probably missed it because i had the time set in my mind early on.

Now that you mention that motor, i remember laughing & feeling sad with the fact she took it. Really? Might as well take the entire machine, right? But no, that would be viewed (by herself, at least) as wrong.

You can disagree with me anytime, deb. :)

I actually thought the story took place a bit earlier. Upon answering your question I see it was probably between the two world wars.

Glad you mentioned the motor, deb. The family seems to do things just to spite the others.

The family will no longer us the post office.

Sister leaves her home to go live in a P.O.

Sister takes the radio which is there connection to the world beyond China Grove, Mississippi.

I think this was mention up-thread by someone. Sorry if I am repeating. I caught a bad cold from my niece's baby and I can hardly think straight.

I hope you recover from the cold quickly. More important, i hope you can still read with this cold. I get some which mess up my eyes & i can't even read. That's the pits.

I agree, this family seems determined to undermine themselves by their behavior. Overall, though, it's just presented as an amusing story, imo. I don't think i gave it much thought (other than its cleverness) when i read it the first time many years ago.

Thanks, Deb. I am sure I will survive. :) However, it stinks to have a cold. I especially miss my long walks. I was really on a track doing them daily. Oh, well, I will just have to make it a point to get back to it as soon as I feel able.

As to the reading, I had such a headache behind my eyes I couldn't read or even watch tv. The eye ache is gone today. Good thing as I do need to start reading
Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots~~Deborah Feldman
for my library group at the end of the month.

Also this month I am going to see the play
The Winslow Boy~~Terence Rattigan and I would like to read that before I go. I have a library request in for the play.

I think i read the play but know i saw the movie based on the play. It was interesting, imo. I hope you get to read it before seeing it and that it enhances your pleasure in the play.

Thanks, Deb. I see this morning the play is at the library waiting for me to pick up. :)

Here at the hotel we get USA Today with our coffee (well, if we go down & get it!). Yesterday, just after reading that you were going to the play, i read a review of it in that newspaper. They were not raving or booing the production. It'll be neat to see what you think. So often when you go, i know nothing about the cast or play, including that it's in production.

Deb, I just finished reading the play last night. I read it in one day. I thought it was very interesting and I enjoyed it. It will be fun to see it transferred to the stage.

I thought it had an interesting premise. When is what you are fighting for not worth the fight? When are you doing more harm then good? Should you always fight for what you think is morally right even if great harm comes due to that battle? Interesting questions.

I haven't seen the Mamet movie version. I checked but my library system only has it on VHS tape.

Isn't it interesting that i didn't remember that it was a Mamet-directed movie? It's just the sort of film, with the questions that are such a part of our moral life, he seems to present viewers. Bummer that you won't be able to see the film. As i recall, however, it was fairly faithful to the play. But don't quote me!

So, I went back and read this one. It was entertaining.

I'm often sort of a straggler on holidays - I don't have family around here and sometimes end up going to friend's houses for dinner. (Frankly, I usually like just hanging out at home.) Invariably, I end up trying to figure out who's who and what's what in the random discussions and occasional disagreements. That's what I felt like reading this story! Dumped in the middle of someone else's family's Thanksgiving dinner.

Anyway, it is too bad that Sister can't go further away (transferred to another PO??) so that she and her family can have some time apart to try to get over their negative feelings. Maybe if they were not in competition for allies in the town, the wounds could heal.

I enjoyed everyone's comments. Thanks!

That probably would be quite useful, Susan. I suspect things could break either way for this family, reconciliation or not, depending on their stubbornness! I had fun exploring this story with the group.

They were an odd group. Who goes and lives at their place of work? I think they sort of needed each other, too. So I don't know if separation would work for them.

I enjoyed discussing the short stories also.

LOL--good point. I suppose that went to illustrate how the P.O. was viewed by Sister as her own fiefdom, where she could live, as desired. Too funny.

Glad you enjoyed the thread, Carly.

I enjoyed reading the series of short stories over the December holidays.