What's The Real Story?

 “Why I Live At The P.O.”  is the story of the struggle of a woman, an unnamed narrator who is called “sister” who constantly struggles with the relationships between her sister, her family, and herself. At first, the reader feels sympathetic towards the constant ways that Stella-Rondo is trying to turn her family against “sister,” because of the completely cruel intentions behind her efforts. However, the reader begins to get a sense that maybe the narrator has instigated this situation on herself.

It’s difficult to be completely sympathetic towards the narrator because of the way she begins to attack Stella-Rondo the second she walks into the house. She says, regarding the daughter that is allegedly adopted, “I said that oh, I didn’t mean a thing, that whoever Shirley-T. was, she was the spit-image of Papa-Daddy if he’d cut off his beard.” Before that, she explained how Stella-Rondo threw anything she was given away, such as the pearl necklace that their grandfather had given them. However, by the way it sounds, she accidentally broke it by playing baseball. You can’t really hold an eight year old accountable for losing a pearl necklace.

Despite Stella-Rondo’s complete lies about the comments that she had actually made about their uncle, the reader still feels a sense of resentment towards the way that she is portrayed from the very beginning. Due to the narrators filter, the reader needs to carefully consider that maybe we are not receiving the full story between them, and the story would probably be a lot different if it was through the filter of a narrator not affiliated with the plot. This would be the best choice, but of course, the story would be less entertaining. The reader is left with the impression we are given of not only Stella-Rondo, but of the very narrow-minded and resentful tone of the narrator.

            Being the youngest child, I understand the jealousy that older siblings sometimes feel, but I would never intentionally do anything to hurt my siblings due to the fact that I am just the youngest child. I am not fully convinced that Stella-Rondo is a horrible person with just plain cruel intentions. The narrator instigates the situation and is actually quite selfish; while she makes Stella-Rondo seem selfish, she is actually quite self-involved in that she is always saying negative things about Stella-Rondo and she is trying to convince the reader that she is the bigger person in their situation. Stella-Rondo’s behavior is not justified, but the narrator’s behavior certainly is not either. The intentions of Stella-Rondo would be best understood through an unbiased filter.