I Stand Here Ironing Essay

In the book Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, Susanna Kaysen was only 18 years old when she agreed to enter a medium security psychiatric facility in Boston, McLean hospital in April 1967, after a failed suicide attempt. She insisted that her over dose on aspirin was not a suicide attempt, but after a 20 minute interview the doctor decided she needed to be admitted to a hospital. During her prolonged two-year stay at the hospital Kaysen describes the issues that most of the patients in her ward have to deal with and how they all differently deal with the amount of time they must stay in the hospital for. While in the hospital Kaysen experienced a case of depersonalization where she tried to pull the skin of her hands to see if there were bones underneath, after a failed escape attempt. Soon, after going to therapy and analysis she was labeled as having recovered from borderline personality disorder. After her release she realizes that McLean Hospital provided patients with more freedom than the outside world, by being free responsibility of parental pressure, free from school and job responsibilities, and being free from the “social norms” that society comes up with. Ultimately, being in captivity gave the patients more freedom then in society and created a safe environment in which patients wanted to stay in.

“Kath and Mouse” is a short story written by Janet Mcnaughton. The theme of the story is about the protagonist called Helen changing her personality and changing other people’s veiw about her. The main protagonist of the story called Kevin who is the twin brother of the antagonist Kath always stop Kath bullying Helen. On the contrary, Kath is a foil character in the whole story. She provides contrast to Helen. She bullys and makes fun of Helen. She even called Helen a mouse. Kath asked Helen whether she plays an instrument and Helen answer with a quite voice”No instrument. I just sing” (McNaughton, 63). This sentence show that Helen is a quite girl and have not so much confidence about herself. Kath incited Helen “ Sing! No choir in this school. Guess

Sanity is subjective. Every individual is insane to another; however it is the people who possess the greatest self-restraint that prosper in acting “normal”. This is achieved by thrusting the title of insanity onto others who may be unlike oneself, although in reality, are simply non-conforming, as opposed to insane. In Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted, this fine line between sanity and insanity is explored to great lengths. Through the unveiling of Susanna’s past, the reasoning behind her commitment to McLean Hospital for the mentally ill, and varying definitions of the diagnosis that Susanna received, it is evident that social non-conformity is often confused with insanity.

Billie Jo Kelby is not a boy. She’s a girl; a wiry, thin, redheaded girl that looks more like her father than her mother. She lives on the Great Plains in 1935, during the great drought known as the Dust Bowl. She lives with her pregnant mother and her father, and life seems good, or as good as it will get in her dusty world.

As they get older, many people start to experience a sense of demoralization and little self-worth. Nikki Giovanni reflects her dismay in the poem “Quilts” by comparing herself to an old piece of cloth as she transitions from hopeless to hopeful throughout her acceptance of aging.

In the short story "I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen the conflict between a mother whose giving is limited by hardships is directly related to her daughter's wrinkled adjustment. Ironing, she reflects upon when she was raising her first-born daughter, Emily. The mother contemplates the consequences of her actions. The mother's life had been interrupted by childbirth, desertion, poverty, numerous jobs, childcare, remarriage, frequent relocations, and five children. Her struggling economic situation gave way to little or no opportunity to properly care for and nurture her first-born child. In spite of the attention and love Emily craved and never received, she still survived, and even made strengths, and talents, out of the

While Sonny was physically locked up in jail for his addiction to drugs, his older brother was confined to the racism in Harlem and unable to express his emotions towards his brother until his daughter passed away. It’s ironic that they were imprisoned in opposite ways. While the narrator never got addicted to drugs like most of the men in the community, Sonny got to escape Harlem and create a new life. Until the brothers shared a drink at the end of the story, they hadn’t found salivation from their self-imprisonment. On the other hand, in “I Stand Here Ironing” it was almost as if the iron was the mother’s imprisonment. The narrator was trapped by the daily tasks she had to perform to effectively care for her family, but ironically it was these chores that weakened her relationship to Emily. “Help make it so there is cause for her to believe that she is more than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron,” pleads the narrator (Olsen, 7). The mother ends her monologue with a cry of hope that her daughter won’t be imprisoned by the iron that trapped

According to the article “But I’m Not Tired,” by Alice Parker, the article states “Many kids ages 10 to 12 years old only get 7 - 8 hours of sleep.” Schools need to adapt their start time and end time. Schools also need to adapt after school activities. Class time should be at least 40 to 50 minutes long. Studies have show that 7 hours of sleep is minimum requirement hours of sleep per night. Studies have also shown that 46% of nights, students sleep less than 7 hours. Studies also have shown that sleep is vital to humans well-being, as important than the air humans breathe.

In this article the author, Howard Rheingold, describes his experience when he decided to visit the amish communities. There he discussed why they put self-imposed rules upon themselves. He realized it was not because they resented technology, the Amish love fancy barbeques and electric saws, but they saw that in the “english” world, people are being separated from their community. The amish decided they would try their hardest to avoid this separation caused by technological advances, “Look Who's Talking” by Howard Rheingold, convinces the reader to analyze the pros and cons of technology; to decide whether or not certain devices are beneficial towards people and their community.

I Stand Here Ironing lies in its fusion of motherhood as both metaphor and experience: it shows us motherhood bared, stripped of romantic distortion, and reins fused with the power of genuine metaphorical insight into the problems of selfhood in the modern world. ironing is a metaphor for "the ups and downs, back and forth of pressing pressures to make ends meet and a determination to pass through life's horrors and difficulties by keeping the mind intact and focusing on the beauty and blessings that [lie amidst] the dark times"? So the ironing is like a drug, to keep the mother calm and sedated. The story seems at first to be a simple meditation of a mother reconstructing her daughter's past in an attempt to

Holding Onto the Air an autobiography by Suzanne Farrell takes the reader backstage in the dramatic life of the world-renowned Balanchine ballerina. From her childhood in Cincinnati to her retirement from ballet in 1989, Farrell's story is truly a remarkable one. The book describes at length her time with the New York City Ballet as well as her complex relationship with the legendary Balanchine. Although Mrs. Farrell goes a bit too far into the ballet descriptions, her beautiful imagery allows reader to experience the joy of performing on stage.

“I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen is a depiction of a mother-daughter relationship that lacks involvement and warmth. The whole story composed of the mother’s memory of her relationship with her daughter, Emily. The memory was a painful one comprised mostly of the way the mother was much less able to care for Emily. The forsaken of Emily demonstrates the importance of physical and emotional support.

Tillie Olsen is acknowledged as one of the most important writers in American literature. Even though her reputation was built on a small body of work, Olsen is recognized for her skill as a storyteller, and her determination to give hope to people of different races, genders, or classes. Olsen’s most famous short story, “I Stand Here Ironing,” is known for its adverse symbols, point of view, and themes.

Red Jackets’ “Reply to the Missionary Jacob Cram” and the poems written by Phillis Wheatley both have something in common. Belief in a God/god(s). Red Jacket provides that in his culture there is the belief in the Great Spirit which Jacob Cram wants to change to the almighty God and Phillis Wheatley shows how what she went through as a slave brought her to an un-denying devotion to God. Religion is something that has developed continually over the years, but one thing has remained the same… every individual has their own God or god(s) that they profess their faith in. What does the belief in a Great Spirit or the belief in God reveal about Red Jacket and Phillis Wheatley? It reveals who they are as an individual, how they live their life, their character, and also shows their past and how they have gotten where they are today.

In her novel Factory Girls, Leslie Chang offers an insider’s perspective of the Chinese export business that ultimately exposes the true colors of factory life in China to the people of the western society. Throughout the novel, she cites historical reasoning as to why a sudden growth in factory workers has occurred and how it has turned into the monstrous industry that it is now. Mainly, she credits the large migration of people from the rural areas to the cities because this caused major political reform. The PRC were then able to move into the global economy with a new strategy, given by Deng Xiao Ping, which consequently caused trade to open up and certain cities to be designated as placeholders for economic development with the potential for newer business.