Told him I was one-sided. Bigger on one side than the other, which is a deliberate, calculated falsehood: I’m the same.
Stella-Rondo stole Sister's boyfriend, supposedly by telling him Sister was "one-sided", which Sister interprets as describing a physical deformity. The adjective can also mean that Sister is biased, partial, single-minded, and capable of only one point of view. Such a description does indeed match Sister's behavior, however the fact Sister misinterprets the criticism is evidence that Sister's vocabulary, intelligence, and overall education is lower than average. This is supported by a subsequent assertion by Papa-Daddy that Sister didn't learn to read until age eight.
I want the world to know I’m happy. And if Stella-Rondo should come to me this minute, on bended knees, 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.
At the end of the story, Sister-- the narrator-- is more interested in proving herself right and in having her experience understood and validated by other people than she is interested in receiving an apology from Stella-Rondo, who has repeatedly wronged her. Sister is isolating herself from her family voluntarily.
"Yes, you did say it too. Anybody in the world could of heard you, that had ears."
Sister is denying having spoken critically of Papa-Daddy's venerable beard, but Stella-Rondo overrules her and claims Sister did indeed say those words. Mama, who was present during the discussion, takes Stella-Rondo's side. The two women gang up on the narrator, who now believes she's being punished for something she didn't actually say.
There are two ways to read this scene. If Sister is a reliable narrator and accurately describes what she's saying, then Stella-Rondo is lying and playing the rest of the family off against Sister with Mama as a willing scapegoat. However, narrators are not necessarily reliable. Although she quotes the rest of the characters verbatim, Sister does not recount her exact words or tone when she mentions that Shirley T. looks like Papa-Daddy would if he cut off his beard, she only summarizes. It is therefore possible that the words that came out of her mouth, or the way in which she spoke them, did not match her intent.
"Wah!" says Stella-Rondo, and has a fresh conniption fit.
Sister has finally succeeded in hurting Stella-Rondo as badly as she believes Stella-Rondo has hurt her, by making sure that if Stella-Rondo wants to write to her husband or receive word from him she will have to apologize and lower herself. She has effectively sabotaged what's left of their marriage. Sister now sees Stella-Rondo as unhappy and emotionally unstable as a small child who is throwing a tantrum, and is satisfied: for once, she is looking clever and mature while Stella-Rondo is distraught.
I stood up for Uncle Rondo, please remember.
The narrator, by speaking directly to the reader, is attempting to manipulate the reader by "turning him or her against" Stella-Rondo, who was the one who originally spoke critically of Uncle Rondo. In this family, people are constantly speaking poorly of those who are not present and playing people off against one another. Although Sister presents Stella-Rondo as the only person who behaves this way, Sister herself is not above criticizing Stella T. and speculating about her the same way.
