Why I Live at the P.O. Literary Elements

Short story

China Grove, Mississippi, southern United States, late 1930s or about 1940 during the start of WWII

First person singular, not omniscient

The tone is sarcastic, frustrated, and angst-ridden

Sister, the narrator, is the protagonist. Her younger sister and rival, Stella-Rondo, is the antagonist.

Stella-Rondo has just returned home, having separated with her husband and with a two-year-old daughter in tow. Her old rivalry with Sister is reignited. Each sister attempts to manipulate the other family members into taking sides against the other.

The climax of the story comes when Uncle Rondo throws lit firecrackers into Sister's room early in the morning to wake her, as retaliation for a perceived slight the day before. Sister, realizing that Stella-Rondo has succeeded in alienating the rest of the family from her, decides to leave home.

The first sentence of the story foreshadows trouble: everything was going well until Stella-Rondo arrived.

"You didn't have to tell me, I know whose word of honor don't mean a thing in this house," says Stella-Rondo.

Sister has been speaking about Shirley T., Stella-Rondo's "adopted" daughter, after being told not to mention the child anymore. Stella-Rondo also chooses to assert Sister has given her word to not talk about the child, and to chide and berate Sister for breaking this promise, despite the fact no such promise is visible in the text. One thing is true, however: nothing Sister says is taken seriously if it contradicts what Stella-Rondo says.

Flanders Field is an allusion to a World War I cemetery in Belgium.

The flesh-colored "kimono" or dressing gown is an item of lingerie, quite expensive, that becomes ridiculous when the inebriated Uncle Rondo borrows and wears it.

Since Sister is living in the back room of the Post Office, the family must interact with her if they wish to send or receive mail with people outside the town, such as Mr. Whittaker, Stella-Rondo's estranged husband. However, at Stella-Rondo's instigation, the entire family has resolved to cut Sister off permanently. This means they can no longer send or receive mail.

Sister's physical departure from the family home parallels her emotional estrangement from them.

The other people in the town are presented as collectively siding with either Sister or the rest of the family, in two easily identifiable groups. This is an example of synecdoche.

Personification (a literary technique by which inanimate objects or animals are given human qualities) is not present in this story.