Eudora Welty

This was another story I skipped by mistake. I found "Why I Live at the P.O." to be rather peculiar read simply because of the way things unfolded during the story. What was suppose to be a 4Th of July celebration turned out to be nothing, but family turmoil and heartache for those involved. I never really understood the significance of the hat though and why the discussion even came up about Shirley T being adopted. I kind of wondered if maybe Shirley may be considered the outcast of the family. This may be a weird observation, but I wondered if there might have been a bit of incest involved in this storyline and perhaps Mr. Whitaker never really existed. Some of the phrases or comments led me to think that way even though I think Mr. Whitaker may have really existed in the first place. With Shirley going to live in the Post Office maybe that was a place of peace and refuge from the turmoil she has faced within the local community and her family. I thought her family was incredibly rude and disrespectful to Shirley; therefore even if the child is adopted or not why was it made into such a big deal anyway. I think this story would definitely fit a couple of categories as we discussed in class such as, loneliness, betrayal, treatment of women, and moral conflicts.