Why I Live At The Po By Eudora Welty Summary

Why I Live at the PO is a short story that is written by the award winning author, Eudora Welty. Welty lived from 1909-2001. The story is told by a character, known only as Sister, and she seems to be the family scapegoat. All is well until her older sister Stella-Rondo returns home with a two year old child, Shirley T. Sister begins to question the paternity of Shirley T. after Stella-Rondo claims the baby is adopted because there is a striking resemblance between the child and Papa-Daddy, the grandfather. Stella-Rondo falls back into her childhood position of being the families’ favorite. She steadily turns each family member against Sister, one by one. Finally, Sister has enough and moves to her workplace, the post office. Welty uses symbols and complex themes to explain honesty and independence. Eudora Welty was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi in 1909. She attended Mississippi State College for Women. She wrote 5 novels but she is most famous for her short stories. Her works mainly focus on characters and places that resemble her small town in Mississippi (Encyclopedia Britannica). She also liked to focus on human relationships. She is known as the “First Lady of Southern Literature” (Mays 835). Welty was not only a writer, but also a photographer.

Theme is a central idea of message that the author is trying to convey. Theme isn’t just the main idea, it’s a statement about that topic (Mays 949). There are multiple themes within Why I Live at the PO. A common topic within this work is “isolation”. One of the major themes is “Lies will divide a family”. For example, Stella-Rondo tells Papa-Daddy that Sister said he should cut his beard when Sister never said that (Mays 837). This leads to Papa-Daddy to get angry with and not speak to Sister. Throughout the story, multiple lies are told and the family members divide and isolate themselves from