Why I Live At The P.O

Rashawn Venters

Eng 101

Mrs. Davis

Why I live at the P.O

The character in this story, Sister, seems to be in a way jealous and a little selfish, but with good reason, she has a sister, Stella-rondo, who has always been everyone's favorite and everyone would believe everything she said, from her saying that Sister was "one-sided to her,( Stella-Rondos ) "adopted" child. Sister has every reason to not like Stella-Rondo. Everyone else in the house seems to think that Sister is indeed very jealous of Stella-Rondo, and Sister can not even defend herself because that would have just verified everyone's point. Although it is a little comedic, the whole story shows bits and pieces of anyone's everyday lives. Jealousy, stubbornness, spitefulness, and sibling rivalry are the main things implicated in this story.

In this short story we meet Sister and four members of her family. The Protaganist of the story ia Sister , the oldest child of two girls, and her younger sister Stella-Rondo is the family favorite. It seems everything Sister wants, Stella-Rondo gets. Sister says that Stella-Rondo stole her boyfriend for it was Sister who had been dating Mr. Whitaker first until Stella- Rondo, being the jealous person she was told him that Sister was "one-sided," unequal on both sides. And that in-turn ended the relationship.Sisters real problem is that she is extreamly jelous of Stella-rondo. And she, Sister, at times can be a little selfish. For instance at the end Sister says to herself, "And if Stella-Rondo should come to me this minute, on bended knee, and attempt to explain the incidents of her life with Mr. Whitaker, I'd simply put my fingers in both my ears and refuse to listen" (153). That statement alone defines her jealously and selfishness towards her sister, because it seems Mr. Whitaker is the only thing she is really upset about for she makes no mention about any of the other family members, nor about the other incidents with Stella-Rondo, including the child incident with the "Child."

From the start of the story it apparent that all this hostility has builded over a period of time when Sister flashbacked to a time when the two were younger. "She's always had anything in the world she wanted and the she'd throw it away. Papa-Daddy give her this gorgeous Add-A-Pearl necklace when she was eight years old and she threw it away playing baseball when she was nine, with only two pearls" (145). That might have been when all the enmity started for her although the story doesn't say. There really is no reason for Stella Rondo to be jealous of Sister but it seems she loves to get her in trouble, Stella Rondo must feel that their Uncle Rondo spoiled Sister unnecessarily. In the story Sister tells us that her Uncle would treat her different than Stella Rondo, because according to Sister Stella-Rondo was often very cruel to her Uncle. "Once Stella-Rondo did something perfectly horrible to him- broke a chain letter from Flanders field Ð'-and he took the radio back he had given her and gave it to meÐ'...Ð'.... Another time he sent me to Mammoth Cave with all expenses paid" (149). The child mentioned earlier is what Stella Rondo claims is her adopted daughter, but Sister does not belive it for one minute, she thinks that her sister had the child and is "just too stuck up to admit it" (148). On page 145 it says, "Ð'... I don't mean thing, only that whoever Shirley T. was , shw was the spit- image of Papa-Daddy Ð'... Of course I noticed I noticed at once she looks like Mr. Whitaker's side too. That frown. She looks like a cross between Mr.Whitaker and Ppa-Daddy." Well that made Stella-Rondo furious so she ended up turningthe