Family as Theater in Eudora Weltys Why I Live at the P.O. Essay

Family as Theater in Eudora Welty's Why I Live at the P.O.      Ã‚  Ã‚   The outspoken narrator of Eudora Welty's "Why I Live at the P.O.," known to us only as "Sister," intends to convince us--the world at large--that her family has "turned against" her, led on by her sister, itella-Rondo. To escape her family, she explains, she has left home and now lives at the P.O., where she is postmistress. As she delivers her monologue, the narrator reveals more about herself than she intends. We see her as a self-centered young woman who enjoys picking fights and provoking melodramatic scenes in which she is the center of attention. Not too far into the story, we realize that others in the family behave as melodramatically as Sister does, and we begin to wonder why. The story's setting may provide the answer: In a small town in Mississippi, sometime after World War II and before television, entertainment is scarce. The members of this family cope with isolation and boredom by casting themselves in a continning melodrama, with each person stealing as many scenes as possible.    The first-person point of view is crucial to the theme of Welty's story. It is both quicker and funnier to show that the narrator is self-centered and melodramatic than it would be to tell it. Sister is definitely the star in the melodrama. She begins her tale with "I," and every event is made to revolve around herself, even her sister's marriage:    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. Mr. Whitaker! Of course I went with Mr. Whitaker first, when he first appeared here in China Grove, taking "Pose Yourself" photos, and Ste... ...eful to show us, the narrator is not the only self-centered, melodramatic member of this family. Given the family history, we can be fairly sure that things will soon be back to normal. The narrator will move back home, and the family, welcoming the diversion, will no doubt find a way of turning her homecoming into a new round of excitement.    Works Cited Prenshaw, Peggy Whitman, ed. Conversations with Eudora Welty. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1984. Romines, Ann. "How Not to Tell a Story." Eudora Welty: Eye of the Storyteller. Ed. Dawn Trouard. Kent: Kent State UP, 1989. 94-104. Welty, Eudora. The Eye of the Story: Selected Essays and Reviews. New York: Vintage, 1979. ---. One Writer's Beginnings. New York: Warner, 1984. ---. "Why I Live at the P.O." The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty. New York: Harcourt, 1980. 46-56. Family as Theater in Eudora Welty's Why I Live at the P.O. Essay Family as Theater in Eudora Welty's Why I Live at the P.O.      Ã‚  Ã‚   The outspoken narrator of Eudora Welty's "Why I Live at the P.O.," known to us only as "Sister," intends to convince us--the world at large--that her family has "turned against" her, led on by her sister, itella-Rondo. To escape her family, she explains, she has left home and now lives at the P.O., where she is postmistress. As she delivers her monologue, the narrator reveals more about herself than she intends. We see her as a self-centered young woman who enjoys picking fights and provoking melodramatic scenes in which she is the center of attention. Not too far into the story, we realize that others in the family behave as melodramatically as Sister does, and we begin to wonder why. The story's setting may provide the answer: In a small town in Mississippi, sometime after World War II and before television, entertainment is scarce. The members of this family cope with isolation and boredom by casting themselves in a continning melodrama, with each person stealing as many scenes as possible.    The first-person point of view is crucial to the theme of Welty's story. It is both quicker and funnier to show that the narrator is self-centered and melodramatic than it would be to tell it. Sister is definitely the star in the melodrama. She begins her tale with "I," and every event is made to revolve around herself, even her sister's marriage:    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. Mr. Whitaker! Of course I went with Mr. Whitaker first, when he first appeared here in China Grove, taking "Pose Yourself" photos, and Ste... ...eful to show us, the narrator is not the only self-centered, melodramatic member of this family. Given the family history, we can be fairly sure that things will soon be back to normal. The narrator will move back home, and the family, welcoming the diversion, will no doubt find a way of turning her homecoming into a new round of excitement.    Works Cited Prenshaw, Peggy Whitman, ed. Conversations with Eudora Welty. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1984. Romines, Ann. "How Not to Tell a Story." Eudora Welty: Eye of the Storyteller. Ed. Dawn Trouard. Kent: Kent State UP, 1989. 94-104. Welty, Eudora. The Eye of the Story: Selected Essays and Reviews. New York: Vintage, 1979. ---. One Writer's Beginnings. New York: Warner, 1984. ---. "Why I Live at the P.O." The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty. New York: Harcourt, 1980. 46-56.

Susan’s intervention plan

Reply to Response #1 I agree with you. Susan’s intervention plan is a good one and might just work given the necessary support from everyone concerned. Carl is not a hopeless case. His having been diagnosed with a behavior disorder which was apparently caused by his parents’ divorce three months previously did not make him a basket case. Actually, what Carl needs is attention and love which he feels was denied him by his parents as a result of their separation. Susan should therefore convince Mrs. Taylor that totally giving up on Carl by taking him out of her class altogether would not help at all.On the contrary, it would aggravate the situation as it would only remind him of the betrayal he believes he suffered from his parents. My reading of the case is that Carl could be saved if only everybody – his parents, Mrs. Taylor, and Susan – are prepared to show him that they would not give up on him. Carl is only misbehaving because he wants attention. Totall y denying him of such attention might push him towards the point of no return. Reply to Response #2 Yes, it is evident that what Nancy really wants is to have Carl out of her class.She is not interested in doing anything more for him and appears to have entirely lost her patience. However, patience is what Carl needs most. He has been showing disrespect not only to Nancy but to the other teachers as well because his behavior disorder was caused by what he believed was an act of betrayal on the part of his divorced parents. In other words, he is merely taking it out on them. If the teachers at Skyler K through 12 Comprehensive School are not patient with Carl, his behavior disorder might develop into something more damaging. Reply to Response #3I agree that talking with Carl might help. Susan could arrange a one-on-one session with Carl after class and establish rapport, befriend him. It could be that an adult friend is what Carl really needs under the circumstances, having â€Å"lo st his parents to divorce. † I also agree with you that Carl’s behavior could very well be a defensive posture on Carl’s part because apparently, he has started feeling â€Å"unsafe† after his parents separated. In other words, Carl is feeling inadequate and insecure and persecuting him – like taking him out of Nancy’s class altogether – might push him over the edge.

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Biography

Occupation:  orator; labor organizer, IWW organizer; socialist, communist; feminist; ACLU founder; first woman to head the American Communist Party Dates:  August 7, 1890 - September 5, 1964 Also Known as:  Rebel Girl of Joe Hills song Quotable Quotes: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Quotes Early Life Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was born in 1890 in Concord, New Hampshire. She was born into a radical, activist, working-class intellectual family: her father was a socialist and her mother a feminist and Irish nationalist. The family moved to the South Bronx ten years later, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn attended public school there. Socialism and the IWW Elizabeth Gurley Flynn became active in socialist groups and gave her first public speech when she was 15, on Women under Socialism. She also began making speeches for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, or Wobblies) and was expelled from high school in 1907. She then became a full-time organizer for the IWW. In 1908, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn married a miner she met while traveling for the IWW, Jack Jones. Their first child, born in 1909, died shortly after birth; their son, Fred, was born the next year. But Flynn and Jones had already separated. They divorced in 1920. In the meantime, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn continued to travel in her work for the IWW, while her son often stayed with her mother and sister. Italian anarchist Carlo Tresca moved into the Flynn household as well; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Carlo Trescas affair lasted until 1925. Civil Liberties Before World War I, Flynn was involved in the cause of free speech for IWW speakers, and then in organizing strikes, including those of textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Paterson, New Jersey. She was also outspoken on womens rights including birth control, and joined the Heterodoxy Club. When World War I started, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and other IWW leaders opposed the war. Flynn, like many other war opponents at that time, was charged with espionage. The charges were eventually dropped, and Flynn picked up the cause of defending immigrants who were being threatened with deportation for opposing the war. Among those she defended were  Emma Goldman  and Marie Equi. In 1920, Elizabeth Gurley Flynns concern for these basic civil liberties, especially for immigrants, led her to help found the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). She was elected to the groups national board. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was active in raising support and money for Sacco and Vanzetti, and she was active in trying to free labor organizers Thomas J. Mooney and Warren K. Billings. From 1927 to 1930 Flynn chaired the International Labor Defense. Withdrawal, Return, Expulsion Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was forced out of activism not by government action, but by ill health, as heat disease weakened her. She lived in Portland, Oregon, with Dr. Marie Equi, also of the IWW and a supporter of the birth control movement. She remained a member of the ACLU board during these years. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn returned to public life after some years, joining the American Communist Party in 1936. In 1939, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was re-elected to the ACLU board, having informed them of her membership in the Communist Party before the election. But, with the Hitler-Stalin pact, the ACLU took a position expelling supporters of any totalitarian government, and expelled Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and other Communist Party members from the organization. In 1941, Flynn was elected to the Communist Partys Central Committee, and the next year she ran for Congress, stressing womens issues. World War II and Aftermath During World War II, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn advocated womens economic equality and supported the war effort, even working for Franklin D. Roosevelts reelection in 1944. After the war ended, as anti-communist sentiment grew, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn again found herself defending free speech rights for radicals. In 1951, Flynn and others were arrested for conspiracy to overthrown the United States government, under the Smith Act of 1940. She was convicted in 1953 and served her prison term in Alderson Prison, West Virginia, from January 1955 to May 1957. Out of prison, she returned to political work. In 1961, she was elected National Chairman of the Communist Party, making her the first woman to head that organization. She remained chairman of the party until her death. For a long time a critic of the USSR and its interference in the American Communist Party, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn traveled to the USSR and Eastern Europe for the first time. She was working on her autobiography. While in Moscow, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was stricken ill, her heart failing, and she died there. She was given a state funeral in Red Square. Legacy In 1976, the ACLU restored Flynns membership posthumously. Joe Hill write the song Rebel Girl in honor of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. By Elizabeth Gurley Flynn: Women in the War. 1942. Womens Place in the Fight for a Better World. 1947. I Speak My Own Piece: Autobiography of the Rebel Girl. 1955. The Rebel Girl: An Autobiography: My First Life (1906-1926). 1973.