Madsen Hardy has a doctorate in English literature and is a freelance writer and editor. In the following essay, she discusses the implications of the first-person narrator's unbalanced perspective in "Why I Live at the P.O."

"Why I Live at the P.O." takes the form of a dramatic monologue, with Sister's emphatic firstperson account of her sister's return home and her own eventual self-exile at the post office given in a direct appeal to the reader. Sister argues her position on the family argument forcefully, presenting overwhelming evidence of Stella-Rondo's craftiness and her own terrible persecution. Furthermore, she presents her case with the fierce conviction that she is in the right, and with no indication that the matter is anything but of the gravest order. By giving Sister's voice complete free reign, Welty would seem to give Sister every possible advantage in winning the reader...