"So I stopped meeting the mail. If there were women all through life waiting, and women by and not waiting, I knew which I had to be." (pg. 146)
I think the most important literary term here is plot structure. Basically pages 130-145 reveal the childhood innocence and naiivity of Edie through her work as a servant for the Peebles'. The last page, then, is a complete 360 turn. The last paragraph actually explains the title- when she met her actual husband. Whereas the majority of the story talks about a chivalrous, heartthrob and pilot, Chris Watters, the ending shows who she married after all, the mailman. Now, not that I have anything against mailmen, but generally speaking, I think teenage girls would rather swoon over a handsome pilot than a postal worker. The way plot structure is important is that it ties in the theme of facing reality. By giving the majority of the story to a childlike fantasy description of a lover, the author creates irony at the end of the work by showing the main character settling or "coming to her senses" and marrying the mailman. For me, the structure emphasizes the moral of the story: don't spend your life waiting on mail that never comes = don't fantasize when you have a real mailman in front of you. :)
I think the most important literary term here is plot structure. Basically pages 130-145 reveal the childhood innocence and naiivity of Edie through her work as a servant for the Peebles'. The last page, then, is a complete 360 turn. The last paragraph actually explains the title- when she met her actual husband. Whereas the majority of the story talks about a chivalrous, heartthrob and pilot, Chris Watters, the ending shows who she married after all, the mailman. Now, not that I have anything against mailmen, but generally speaking, I think teenage girls would rather swoon over a handsome pilot than a postal worker. The way plot structure is important is that it ties in the theme of facing reality. By giving the majority of the story to a childlike fantasy description of a lover, the author creates irony at the end of the work by showing the main character settling or "coming to her senses" and marrying the mailman. For me, the structure emphasizes the moral of the story: don't spend your life waiting on mail that never comes = don't fantasize when you have a real mailman in front of you. :)
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