Study Guide to
Eudora Welty's "Why I Live at the P.O."

 

(1)  When you've finished your first reading of the story, try to formulate as clearly and comprehensively as you can the various factors at work in the following conflicts:

• the conflict between the narrator ("Sister") and her mother
• the conflict between Sister and her younger sister Stella-Rhondo
• the conflict between Sister and her grandfather Papa-Daddy
• the conflict between Sister and Uncle Rhondo

Which of these conflicts do you take to be most fundamental, most central, to the story as a whole?  And what is the relationship of the others to this one?

What do you take to be the climactic moment of the story, in which the central conflict of the story gets resolved?  

(2)  Where do we understand Sister to be located while she is telling the story?  (Do we figure this out early on [say, in the exposition phase of the plot], or in the middle of the story [during the rising action}, or towards the end [at the climax, or in the denoument]?)

• What do we understand to be her motive in telling the story?  
• What would be your best guess, all things considered, about whom it is that she is telling this story to?
• What do you imagine the reaction of this person to be?  
  • How so?

  In addressing this series of questions, you might find it useful to review our online glossary article on the concept of dramatic monologue.

(3)  Does Sister understand the full extent of the responsibility for the conflict between herself and her family?

That is:  on reflection, do we, as the "hearer" of this story, form a different understanding about what is going on here than does the person we are hearing from?  How does this affect our feelings toward the narrator?

In thinking through this question, you might find it useful to review our online glossary article on dramatic irony.

(4)  What does this story "exemplify"?  That is:  could you point to other situations you know about (from your experience, first-hand or second-hand) that are significantly similar?

• What do you take to be the force of the term "significantly" in the previous statement?  

(5)  This story is basically comic.  (How so?)

• Could you imagine a situation in which a similar kind of mentality as we have here on display in the case of Sister might have truly disastrous consequences?

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