Everyone wants a perfect family, but nothing is ever perfect. The family in “Why I Live at the P.O.” is most definitely less than perfect. When Stella-Rondo returns to her old home after leaving her husband and bringing her small child who she claims is adopted, much conflict in the family increases. Stella-Rondo turns every family member living in the household against Sister, her older sister, and every family member betrays Sister by believing the lies Stella-Rondo tells about Sister to them. Through much turmoil and distress, Sister becomes so overwhelmed with the unending conflict that she feels she must leave her home and live at the post office. In “Why I Live at the P.O.,” Eudora Welty strongly implies that the function of the …show more content…
Lastly, her family betrayed her by not listening to her side of the story after her sister told lies about her, and they betrayed her when they acted as if they did not care if she moved out of the house. In all of these actions, the family itself and certain members of the family are portrayed as uncaring, unsupportive, disrespectful, conniving, deceitful, and hateful to Sister. Through every action of the family, Sister is treated harshly, and she tries to not let this bother her. Yet, anger and bitterness build up inside of her until she cannot take it anymore. Consequently, it built up so much inside of her that it severely affected Sister so profoundly that she moved away from her home to get away from her family. 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.
All of these examples of Sister’s point of view towards most of her family are positive, yet these positive points of view quickly change when Sister decides to move to the post office. For example, Sister is very sarcastic with her
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
After spending time with her elderly relative, the girl sees that the worst thing you could do to another person “is to make them feel as if they are worth nothing” (Ortiz 3). This ordeal causes her to learn that what she says and how she behaves could be hurtful and upsetting to others. Because of this event, Connie would most likely become more thoughtful of them. In addition, the teen starts “to consider a number [she] hadn’t thought much about” (Ortiz 3) and begins to understand Abuela better. The girl feels terrible and sorry since she had made her grandmother feel like she was worthless. Zero becomes a more significant number to her life, and she realizes that she should not act towards others like she had. In conclusion, Constancia’s experiences with her grandparent made her more mature and considerate, changing her self-centered
The characterizations of Connie’s family members have great effects on Connie. And onnie’s mother’s characterization is the main motivator for Connie’s rebellion. She always compares Connie with June, who is the “ideal daughter” in her eyes, and blames Connie for some little things, such as improper dressing and not having a tidy room. Oates suggests that the reason for Connie’s mother prohibiting Connie to dress up like an adult is that “ Her mother had been pretty once too” (Oates 1), but now “her looks were gone and that was why she always after Connie” (Oates 1). Therefore, she is jealous about Connie’s beauty and feels uncomfortable when seeing Connie wear beautiful outfits. Meanwhile, she likes June so much because June is obedient and plain, which makes her feel that she is dominant in the relationship. In the short story, Connie’s father is not given much description by the author, but his characterization has an effect on Connie as well. The irresponsible father spends little time with family and seldom has conversations to his daughters. When hearing his wife’s complain about Connie, he just bends his head with saying nothing, which makes Connie feels ignored and lonely. Urbanski states that “The father, who spent most of his time at work, is weak” (Urbanski 200) to reveals the father is not an active figure in his daughter’s life. Therefore, lacking of the company and communication of family members, Connie becomes upset. In addition, Connie’s sister June, who has the opposite characterization, is also one of the reasons for Connie’s rebellion. In Connie’s eyes, June is a
Because she begins recalling her childhood, the attachment that she feels towards her brother causes her to dismiss her brother’s disorderly conduct. So even when her brother was out committing crimes, getting drunk, and more, she did not feel that it was important to brood over, because the image does not fit with the perception that she has of him.
For example, throughout her childhood she never had a truly stable home. Her family was constantly moving from place to place around the country, and as her father said, “doing the skedaddle” whenever inconveniences arose, like debt collectors catching up to them or getting into trouble with the law. Second, her father always spent the majority of their money on beer and other alcoholic beverages at bars, and they frequently had no food to eat and were starving. The children often had to fend for themselves to find food when they were hungry without the assistance of their parents. Jeannette often subdued her and her siblings’ difficulties by taking charge of herself and her siblings to acquire food and by standing up for herself whenever it was necessary. For example, she stood up for herself whenever her mother was being selfish and pompous. Her mother would hide snacks and eat them secretly without sharing, and she would also spend days sobbing and complaining about how she had to do everything. During those times, Jeannette often took charge and directly criticized her mother about not doing her job. After her dad whipped her, Jeannette vowed to escape Welch for good and began saving up money to leave and move away. As a result of her struggles, over the years Jeannette had become very hard-working and diligent at whatever work she did. This lead her to become very successful in the future. She
Jeannette is the narrator of her memoir, telling her story from age three into adulthood. As a child she is adventurous, wild-hearted, and Dad 's favorite. Jeannette, a middle sibling, is closer to younger brother Brian than her older sister Lori: Brian shares Jeannette 's love of the outdoors, while Lori is more a bookworm. As Jeannette matures, her feelings toward Dad and Mom change. She resents Dad 's drinking and how he constantly lets her and the rest of the family down yet never openly admits it or allows his flaws to be discussed. Jeannette also resents Mom 's refusal to hold down a job long enough to provide her kids with a stable food supply. These resentments make her more and more willful and independent. Eventually she scrapes
Throughout her early childhood, she ignores her father's drunken escapades, and thinks of him as a loving father and excellent teacher of the wild. It isn't until her junior year of high school that she realizes the indisputable flaws her father has. She resents Dad's drinking and how he constantly lets her and the rest of the family down yet never openly admits it or allows his flaws to be discussed. Jeannette also begins to resent her mother, whom she’s never been close to. Some cause of her resentment includes her mom’s refusal to hold down a job long enough to provide her kids with a stable food supply, especially since Rex won’t be providing like he says he will. This resentment eventually motivates her to move away from her parents and Welch. She ends up in New York City with her sister Lori in which she focuses on her studies and becomes a successful journalist. Jeannette is a natural forgiver and it shows even when she moves away from her parents, but this doesn’t stop her from being haunted by her past and with her transition from poverty into the upper-middle class. By the end of the novel, Jeannette is a symbol of the resilience and
Her mother is always giving her negative comments, never anything positive, and always finds something to make her feel bad about. Her sister is nine years older than Connie, twenty four years old, and still lives in the house, yet her mother always compares Connie to her sister, using her to make Connie feel bad about herself. Therefore, because of this abuse that Connie receives from her mother, Connie says that she “wished her mother was dead and she herself were dead and it was all over” (254). In addition to the abuse from her mother, her father is very quiet and is never really present in Connie’s life. This difficult situation at home makes Connie vulnerable because she is always seeking positive feedback from someone to make herself feel better, because she never receives positive feedback at home from her mother, and even when her father goes to pick up Connie from the mall, he doesn’t even bother to ask how it was, or what they had done. This is a big factor as to why Connie is so vulnerable in the story. Oates might use Connie’s situation at home to convey insights about people in the real world who also have difficult situations awaiting them at home. Oates tries to use Connie’s family situation to try and make a connection to others in the real world who might have parents who are divorced or any type of situation at home that is similar to Connie’s that might make life
Laura, the sister’s mother, has a hard time accepting that they are no longer rich but middle class. Once the girl’s begin to adjust to their newfound freedom in the states, they start to get into trouble. Laura, the mother, finds
Imagine being born into a family that has no love and doesn’t care much for their children. That's how it was for Jeanette Walls and her siblings. Her parents did love her but didn’t show it much. They were not very helpful and were not great parents. Her father Rex and mother Rosemary didn’t have a great parenting style, but their children still grew up to be good people.
“The Psychodynamics of the Family”, taken from The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender, published in 1978, remains one of Nancy Chodorow most influential works.
Sister manipulates the stories events to assist herself by convincing the readers that everybody in her family is out to get her. One such event is when Sister recounts how Stella-Rondo twists a story telling Papa-Daddy that Sister said he should shave his beard.
In The Way We Never Were, Stephanie Coontz suggests that society romanticizes past generations of family life and points out that these memories are merely myths that prevent us from “dealing more effectively with the problems facing today’s families” (Coontz x). Coontz proposes that researchers can take empirical data and create misleading causality for that data, thus feeding cultural myth and/or experience. Coontz believes that “an overemphasis on personal responsibility for strengthening family values encourages a way of thinking that leads to moralizing rather than mobilizing for concrete reforms” (Coontz 22). She calls on us to direct our attention to social reforms, which can be accomplished by avoiding victim-blaming
All the sisters have a past and a story, but some stories end sooner then others. The sisters all lose someone important to them, especially Sebastian, Oma, and Casper and they stick together to work through the heartache for better days. Martha looks after them all with a loving and caring heart and always with good intentions. After everything they’ve gone through they push through the bad days and find good days with heartache along the way. Believing in something helps you achieve what your goal is. When you love someone, you aspire to make that person happy no matter the cost, even if it means you yourself are unhappy sometimes. Never lose sight of great importance because not everything lasts forever and the girls will find that out sooner or later, everyone does.
They are silly, self-assimilated, and vindictive and essentially any pessimistic quality you can think a man is fit for having without imploding. They look for and wreck and act with no idea to outcome. Furthermore, I think that its intriguing that Emily Bronte picked them to be her focal heroes. We should appreciate the story itself, the association between these families and what happens. This book contains a solid and over the top, possessive, resolute yet enthusiastic sentiment. The association between the principle characters is special in its own specific manner not as a matter of course great but rather one of a kind, solid. Their division prompted wildness, self-centeredness, distrustfulness and makes them feel lost; makes them destruct and gradually execute themselves and everybody around them. This book demonstrates authenticity. This is an emotional and dismal book yet astonishing still. Like I said some time recently, it must be perused with some sort of state of mind and we must have the capacity to center in the peculiarity and one of a kind words covered up in each line. I like that the creator recounted to us this story through the maid, Nelly Dean's account, who is a witness of this stormy story. Her story is captivating. Additionally, the space of the plot is suitable and