Eudora Welty (1909-2001)
Both Delta Wedding and “Why I live at the P.O.” are good candidates for a question or two on the GRE.Her first short story, “Death of a Traveling Salesman,” appeared in 1936. In 1941 she published her first collection of short stories, A Curtain of Green. Her novel, The Optimist’s Daughter , won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973.
“Delta Wedding”
Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty creatively unfolds through the overheard thoughts of the members of the Fairchild family. The oversized clan deals with a massive amount of external and internal issues that focus on both the unity and the conflict within this tight-knit Southern family. This novel does not focus on one person, place, or thing. The protagonist of Delta Wedding is the Fairchild family in that the author tells the story through the voices of the entire family. However, the character of George does stand out as the hero of the novel.
“Why I Live at the P.O.”
Sister, the narrator of “Why I Live at the P.O.”, opens the story explaining why Mr. Whitaker broke up with her and married her sister, Stella-Rondo: she “[t]old him I was one-sided. Bigger on one side than the other, which is a deliberate, calculated falsehood: I’m the same.” While this bit of dialogue may seem innocent initially, it refers to the folk belief that all women have one breast bigger than the other. Blunt interest in female sexuality is hardly characteristic of the prim southerner misrepresented in so much Welty criticism
Vade Mecum 