Tillie Olsen's I Stand Here Ironing

In “I Stand Here Ironing,” Olsen conveys the symbolic meaning of an iron, which connects to Walker’s symbolism for the quilt in “Everyday Use.” Both these objects are ironically associated with a mother in general. Furthermore, in these short stories, Olsen represents the iron as a mother’s ability to smooth out the wrinkles in her daughter’s life. By this, the mother states, “I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormented back and forth with the iron”. In other words, she throws all her painful emotions and guilty of not being a mother to her daughter Emily into the iron. In addition, the iron tries to destroy these emotions that are a representation as “wrinkles”. Also, as the narrator is ironing back and forth, the action is used as a flashback as where she went wrong in raising Emily. Similarly, Walker shows how ironically a quilt is like a mother, in where both share a legacy and are also used for comfort. In this short story, a mother tries to reconnect with her daughter through their heritage, but later realizes that she cannot give

Family plays an enormous part in our everyday lives. Each family has their own hopes dreams, and desires for each individual. Every family member, adults and children, should be given the best chance to reach their fullest potential in life. Every family is different and for some families in order for the individual to succeed that means that they must send their children to live with people who can better care for them and provide them with things that they as parents are not able to. In Tillie Olsen’s short story, “I Stand Here Ironing”, she writes about the distressed feelings of a woman, a mother, as she looks back on her daughter’s life. This reflection provoked someone else’s distress for her daughter, although we never find out exactly who is worried about the well-being of the daughter, the mother examines the reasons for her 19 year old daughter’s existing issues and defends her daughter and the things she did to make sure she had a good life. Olsen’s use of narrative methods and outstanding choice of facts and language let the reader see the mother’s character and her caring, loving feelings concerning her children.

The mother was an invisible parent for Emily. Her reason for not being there for Emily was because she was a “young and distracted mother” (Olsen 262). The real reason she was inattentive was because she was inexperienced. She lacks the understanding of how essential it is to be there physically for Emily. Emily needed her mother for

According to the overview from the Alabama virtual Library they claim that Tillie Olsten “I Stand Here Ironing” to be one of her best known autobiographies. (2010. LitFinder) Olsen wrote about many things through her life but the subjects she was rather fond of include: sex, age, and class. We see how sex and class affects women within “ I Stand Here Ironing”. Sex, class, and age are the key factors that limited people, mainly women that Olsen wrote about. We can see within this story that Olsen related back to her life as a mother during this time of depression with having multiple jobs to help keep them afloat. Olsen gave birth to four kids and at the time she worked, tried to maintain the role of wife, caretaker, and cleaner. The crowd

Parents try to raise their children well in hopes that their next generation are the best they can. They protect their children and teach them values that as adults, they find important. And although they think that their children’s outcome depends solely on their actions as parents, in truth they are but a small part of their child’s life. This idea that parents have little effect on their children’s adult lives is something both author Tillie Olsen of I stand here Ironing and Russel Baker of In My Day… agree on. They show their opinion on the topic through the use of the literary devices metaphor and conflict.

In “I Stand Here Ironing”, author Tillie Olsen offers a heart wrenching account of the many tribulations a single mother and her family have faced. Foremost, the story focuses on the negative influences in which the mother, who is also the narrator, has projected onto her then nineteen year old daughter, Emily. A call requesting guidance on how better to help Emily from the college in which she is attending exposes old wounds and guilt that the mother has been harboring for years. On page 706, Olsen reveals that Emily's father left when he "could no longer endure" as he explained in a goodbye note, leaving the mother to raise Emily alone. Through characterization, symbolism and imagery, Olsen explores

In her short story, “I Stand Here Ironing,” Tillie Olsen depicts a distant relationship between a mother and a daughter. Olsen does this by writing from the mother’s point of view. As the mother is ironing, she reflects back to her first time being a parent. Emily, her daughter, was born during the Great Depression and as a young, single, and inexperienced mother, there were many flaws in raising Emily. As a child who was born during the Great Depression, Emily did not have a glamorous life. As a result, there were many limitations during Emily’s growth, but they also became her strengths.

For years women have struggled with balancing the demands of home, children, and work. This is especially true for young, single mothers who do not have the support of family. “I Stand Here Ironing” written by Tillie Olsen is a short story that reflects on the struggles of a single mother who looks back on the past and tries to assess the effect her decisions and circumstances had on her young daughter, Emily. It is part of the “awarding-winning collection, Tell Me a Riddle, which was first published in 1961 when Olsen was in her late forties”. The story “is considered the most autobiographical” of Olsen’s literary works (Piedmont-Marton). The title of the story is taken from the story’s opening line, “I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormented back and forth with the iron” (Bauer; Olsen 584). “The story is one of the best examples in literature- and certainly one of the first- to offer readers a glimpse into the lives of the working-class women and families from a woman’s perspective” (Piedmont-Marton). This story “illustrates Olsen’s particular concern with the difficulties faced by women” (Wolfe). As the story unfolds, Olsen’s use distinct character traits, imagery, symbolism, tone, and style create a dramatic sense of the mother’s internal debate of her own feelings.

Emily’s father abandoned them when she was an infant, and the narrator tried desperately to make ends meet. Unfortunately, the only way to do that was to work multiple jobs and enroll Emily in a day care program. When an old man at Emily’s day care tells the narrator that she should smile at Emily more, she is bemused, thinking, “What was on my face when I looked at her? I loved her. There were all the acts of love” (Olsen, 1956). The protagonist spends her years of motherhood working hard to provide a better life for her daughter than her own had been. Emily, however, does not understand the sacrifices her mother has made. As a child, she knew nothing except that her mother is away working almost constantly. As an adolescent and young adult, she becomes withdrawn and isolated from members of her family, and she resents her younger sister due to envy. Emily struggles with her past because she either is unable or unwilling to acknowledge that her mother spent years making sure Emily was taken care of financially. When Emily finally gains self-confidence and becomes a locally successful comedienne, she is unappreciative of her mother’s years of sacrifice. She even mocks her mothers’ position at the ironing board, saying “Aren’t you ever going to finish the ironing, Mother? Whistler painted his mother in a rocker. I’d have to paint mine

The mother seems to have one final wish that Emily will have the strong sense of self worth and believe that she is more than the dress that is “helpless before the iron.” This comment suggests that the mother hopes Emily will be able to overcome the mother’s mistakes, rather than succumb to the circumstance of her birth and of society. The mother is more than a character in a story, Olsen brings her too life with an emotional pain and realistic sorrow. The readers relate themselves to this oppressed mother, who struggled to support her family but constantly battling with her quilt and regret due to her absence in her daughter’s life.

In the story, “I Stand Here Ironing”, the author, Tillie Olsen introduce the role of compassionate mother that society anticipates that ladies will grasp is really a deterrent to any sort of fruitful self-revelation. Instead of assistance ladies accomplish self-realization, parenthood really strands ladies in lives weighed down with drudge and intemperate obligation. Olsen gives us a protagonist who fanatically reflects on the harsher, all the more severe substances of family life. The storyteller empties certain exaggerated ideas with respect to parenthood, specifically the supremacy of the youngster parent security.

Parenting has been referred to as one of the hardest yet rewarding things a person could experience in his or her lifetime. Parenting does come with its ups and downs; parents often go through a series of emotional turmoil’s, feelings of defeat, regret, guilt and most of all fear. Right alongside of these however, parents also experience pride, joy and fulfillment. The parent and child dynamic between a mother and daughter are especially sensitive, yet the bond between a mother and daughter has been said to be irrefutable. Tillie Olsen's short story "I Stand here Ironing", Amy Tan's short story "Two of a Kind" and Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use" provides the opportunity to glimpse into three different mother daughter relationships and the intricacy's that foster their relationships. There are several

Tillie Olsen’s short story, “I Stand Here Ironing,” expresses a single mother’s ability to care for her first born child Emily. She feels guilty over how she lacked showing her love and affection. At only nineteen years old during the Great Depression and Emily’s father leaving only eight months after the birth of Emily, she was forced to start working long hours at night. Eventually, Emily’s mother had to leave her daughter with his family, causing distance and lack of a bond between the two. The theme of “I Stand Here Ironing” involves a mother wanting her child to have a better upbringing and life overall, however, due to poverty, remarriage, four more children, inability to show love, and frequent absences, her guilt

Although, the narrator had reflected with the children, her ability to hear is not her own because she is continually tuning in for crying, it is the absence of listening that has likely started the issue with Emily that spurs the narrator’s past . Despite the fact that the narrator regrets the past, regardless she appears to lack the enthusiasm for Emily and her interests and will likely just propagate Emily's poor social change and low confidence which disregard Emily's challenges and expectation that they work themselves out, however, this is a state of mind of annihilation. But the narrator has persevered through an existing set apart by issues and accept that Emily will bear the same. One reward of motherhood is giving an alternate or

In the beginning of the story, Emily realises she is being followed, she is determined to find out who is lurking in the ‘shadow’. Coming face to face with stalker-Eve, her half sister- they look surprisingly similar. There is just enough suspense to keep me reading. I enjoy discovering with Emily how Eve comes about. The contrast between the upbringing of Eve and Emily is huge, and just like Emily believes the lies Eve making up about the relationship between Eve’s mother and their father. I found the novel is interesting when the teenager has to find some truth about her family. However, she must keep the mystery of the relationship between their father and Eve’s mother away from her mother when she knows the truth from Eve. Mr. Malone said