Sister's Jealousy in "Why I Live at the P.O."

In a passage from “The Glass Castle,” Jeannette Walls describes what life was like growing up with her broken family and how she felt about it. Jeannette writes about how she feels about her younger sister, Maureen, and how she believes that she is failing Maureen. Jeannette promised Maureen that she will protect her, but with her manipulative, alcoholic father and selfish, depressed mother, it is a challenge to maintain that promise made at Maureen’s birth. She also includes how she was made the head of the household because her dysfunctional family couldn’t maintain their lives properly. At 13 years old, Jeannette had to create a budget of $200 over the course of two months for her two younger siblings while her mom and older sister were

You see as the day progresses how spoiled Stella Ronda is and how deceitful she can be as she turns everyone in the family again Wetly and in the end causes Wetly to come to the decision to leave. Showing of an example of siblings who did not develop a more independent stance on life and how one can be pushed towards it. It’s been stated that ‘Brothers and sisters develop patterns of love and hate, care and abuse, and loyalty and betrayal. There are power struggles, sexual possibilities, interdependencies, role experiments, and divisions of emotional and instrumental labor. All of these will shape future adult functioning, perceptions, expectations, self-care, and self-worth. In other words, here is where many people directly learn some of the basics about who they are—or dare not to be—as individuals, partners, parents, and peers (Watanabe-Hammond, 1988).’ Again as stated before it seems like you shouldn't trust what Whelty is saying about her self and her family but reading the commentary by her family and their extreme reactions to little things, it is obvisoe that her point of

For example, Jeannette’s parents never had a stable home, and had to sleep in their car or motels. This never stopped Jeannette or her siblings to have a future. The oldest sister, Lori, managed to move out because it wasn’t stable for her. Lori wanted Jeannette move in with her because she wanted her to be safe and get her education. She moved to New York. Consequently, their parents didn’t agree to this because they were young and needed to be with an adult at all time. Which was an disadvantage for them and the effect of it was that they didn't care about what their parent's opinion was. As a result, Jeannette went through a lot of not having a stable home which made her older sister think about their

As the story progresses, the theme changes from being comical to being violent. Also, the reader's perception of the grandmother becomes more intense . As O'Connor said, "[t]here is a change of tension from the first part of the story to the second where the Misfit enters, but this is no lessening of reality" ("On" 176). The presence of the Misfit causes the story to become more of a mystery; therefore, the actions of the grandmother also become a mystery because the reader doesn't know what to expect from her. It is a surprise to the reader to find the grandmother become so sincere. The grandmother tries many traditional methods to keep the Misfit from killing

Connie does not have any control over what people do to her, however, the criticism she takes from her mother whenever she compares her to her sister June combined with her mother’s insults gives Connie a low self-esteem and insecurity about herself; she thinks she is “less worthy” because of this and makes her think her beauty is everything, that she is nothing without it.

I’ll give you all the money I’ve got!” (O’Connor 355). She is pleading the Misfit for her life only by saying the word lady repeatedly and offering him the money. She is also praising the Misfit by calling him a good man and trying to save her life. She was also careless about her family. When her family is taken down into the woods, she continues to talk to Misfit. She ignores the sound of when her son and rest of the family were being shot. She is apparently oblivious to many things. She was ignoring everything but the Misfit. “The shirt came flying at him and landed on his shoulders and he put it on. The grandmother couldn’t name what the shirt reminded her of” (O’Connor 354). The grandmother doesn’t even realize that shirt was her son Baileys. She had no interest in knowing where that shirt came from and what happened to my family. For the concern of her life only, she tries to persuade the Misfit the same way she tried with her family. “I know you’re a good man. You don’t look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people!” (O’Connor 352). She is trying to manipulate the Misfit and hopes that he will bear her. She is thinking about no one else but the sake for herself. However she fails once again to influence the Misfit.

It’s clear that Sister is greatly taken aback by the arrival of her sister and also harbors some ill will toward the situation when she states, “Now if it had been me that trotted in from Illinois and brought a peculiar-looking child or two, I shudder to think of the reception I’d of got, much less controlled the diet of an entire family.”(597). It’s at this point that Sister shows herself as being a bias narrator who is clouded by her jealousy and need for attention; this makes it necessary for the reader to have to fill in the blanks of what is really happening. It’s also interesting to note here the sibling rivalry that is going on between Sister and Stella-Rondo, Sister obviously keeps close track of what Stella-Rondo has gotten away with over the years and clearly she doesn’t want her to get away with such things again. Sister is already starting to lose the battle of attention from her family, but more so that she has now lost the spotlight and nobody is paying attention to her. Instead, they’re focusing their direction and attention on Stella-Rondo and her child which infuriates Sister and drives her to make the statement “…Whoever Shirley-T. was, she was the spit-image of Papa-Daddy if he’d cut off his beard…” (594). The attempt being made by Sister to get into the family’s good graces by using Stella-Rondo’s untimely return as a spark to get her family’s attention, was thwarted when Stella-Rondo came back and

After deciding to move to the post office, Sister’s point of view towards her uncle, mother, and grandfather changes, yet it remains the same towards her sister. While Sister was living at the house, she mentioned at the very beginning of the story that she “was getting along fine with Mama, Papa-Daddy, and Uncle Rondo” (Welty 40). Also, she refers to her uncle as being “a good case of a one-track mind” (Welty 43); this is positively stating that her uncle is only focused on one certain thing and nothing else.

In her sorrow for the behavior of her daughter Connie, the mother often expresses a bit more appreciation and consideration for the older sister June. She declares somewhere in the story, ‘’Why don’t you keep your room clean like your sister? How’ve you got your hair fixed-what the hell stinks? Hair spray? You don’t see your sister using that junk’’ (Henderson ). It is well-known that anything in excess is harmful, but Connie does not seem to have been aware of this. Connie’s behavior, far away from doing good to her, exposes her to her sexual predator as an easy prey.

While most authors would shy away from the topic of sex, Smith does not. Smith builds a theme of judgment on someone’s choice of partner and sexual encounter. Francie begins to question more and more about sex as she grows older. Francie was born out of the strong attraction her mother felt for her father (Zonana). Aunt Sissy, Katie’s sister, hung around the kids a lot as Francie grew up. Aunt Sissy held the attention of many men who were attracted to her and she loved the attention. Aunt Sissy was very inconsistent with who she stayed with and for how long. Aunt Sissy was judged many times from other women for her inconsistency. Wives of the husbands Aunt Sissy caught attention of were jealous of her for their husbands had a stronger attraction to Aunt Sissy than their own wives. Francie was introduced to men having an attraction to women by Aunt Sissy. As Francie grows older, she notices more things like women getting jealous over other women for their love life and the “good women” of the neighborhood judging people who are not ashamed. Francie meets a girl named Joanna who lives in her neighborhood. Joanna had a child out of wedlock and she was not ashamed of it. She loved her baby with all her heart, but the “good women” got jealous of Joanna for she was not ashamed. Joanna and the father of her child were still close after she was pregnant. They had a good relationship and most of the women

Stella-Rondo works hard to seem perfect to her family, though she is far from it. She is the antagonist in “Why I Live at the P.O.” because in order to make herself look better, she turns everyone against her sister, who is the only one who can see through her lies. Sister points out obvious lies that Stella-Rondo tells, such as the fact that Shirley T. is her biological daughter. Stella-Rondo also seems to be in denial about the mistakes she made, such as getting pregnant and recently divorced, because she is ashamed of them. Katya is also ashamed of her past because it is dark and difficult for her to think about, though her circumstances were not her fault like Stella-Rondo’s were. Katya is the protagonist in “Puffed Rice and Meatballs” and the conflicts she seems to have are with herself. Though she lied in order to please her lover, she also has a hard time becoming happy with herself. She seems to need other people’s validation of her

In 1972, she writes “Sisterhood” which describes how women of different ethnicities, political and social backgrounds bond over the effects of male dominance and the importance of raising women’s self-esteem.

She is disgusted at her mercenary and calculating sisters, who deceive their father. She prefers to “love and be silent.”

While the death of Stella’s sister’s is a mystery, that plot line is definitely secondary to the romantic attraction between Romulus and Stella in the book. There’s also a subplot involving Romulus’ business partner, his sister, and her estranged husband. They have a rocky past behind them, and the reader is left hanging wondering if they will ever live happily ever after or if they will continue to live with the drama of the past hanging between

His family’s confidence never dwindled; time after time, they joined a crusade to save Richard’s soul. Tensions began to increase when Aunt Addie enrolled Richard in the religious school where she taught. Labeled as a black sheep, Richard continued to defy the iron fist of his family. The conflict between Aunt Addie and Richard exploded when he was accused of eating walnuts in class. Richard knew the boy in front of him was guilty, but he abided by the “street code” and said nothing. Despite Richard’s denial, Aunt Addie did not conduct an investigation and immediately beat Richard in front of the class. After submitting to his aunt, he finally confessed the guilty suspect. Rather than to commend Richard for the truth, Aunt Addie attempted to beat him again after school. However, brandishing a knife, Richard defended himself. He had stood up for his dignity and pride, something that was worth more to him than anything.