As the title suggests, the story is an apologia in which Sister attempts to explain why she has decided to live in the post office of the small town of China Grove, where she is postmistress. The first line of the story establishes the problem quite clearly: "I was getting along fine with Mama, Papa-Daddy and Uncle Rondo until my sister Stella-Rondo just separated from her husband and came back home again" (May). This story is told only from Sister’s point of view, and it portrays Stella as being spoiled and trying to turn everyone against her. “Thus, the plot of the story is minimal, even trivial. In fact, trivia is what seems to characterize this extended monologue, for it is difficult for the reader to take seriously any of the events of the story that Sister tells. The reader feels superior to the characters in the story, as is typical of comedy, because he or she can laugh at the foolishness of the values they embody” (May). The author uses a first person point of view to evoke a sense of sympathy from the
As the title suggests, the story is an apologia in which Sister attempts to explain why she has decided to live in the post office of the small town of China Grove, where she is postmistress. The first line of the story establishes the problem quite clearly: "I was getting along fine with Mama, Papa-Daddy and Uncle Rondo until my sister Stella-Rondo just separated from her husband and came back home again" (May). This story is told only from Sister’s point of view, and it portrays Stella as being spoiled and trying to turn everyone against her. “Thus, the plot of the story is minimal, even trivial. In fact, trivia is what seems to characterize this extended monologue, for it is difficult for the reader to take seriously any of the events of the story that Sister tells. The reader feels superior to the characters in the story, as is typical of comedy, because he or she can laugh at the foolishness of the values they embody” (May). The author uses a first person point of view to evoke a sense of sympathy from the