The Realism featured in Tillie Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing” The short story “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen a remarkable piece of literature involving the struggles many women faced in the 19th century before, during and after the Great Depression. A mother describes her daughter as a “child of her age, or depression, of war, of fear” and constantly reflects over the decisions she has made as a mother. (Olsen, pg. 4). Her story exemplifies the guilt of a mother not being attentive to her daughter as she had been working (“Tillie Olsen” pg. 1). By reading “I Stand Here Ironing”, it is noticeable about the realism of women taking care of their families during the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a period in which …show more content…
Olsen is the daughter of two Jewish immigrants who came to The United States from Russia after the 1905 Revolution. She was the daughter of six. Her father supported their family by becoming a farmer and working in packing houses. Her family was poor and struggled financially. Her mother, Ida, had a hard time raising her and the other children. The family started to believe in the ideas of atheism and socialism. When Tillie Olsen got older in age, she was responsible for caring for her siblings. She also started a job for shelling peanuts (“Tillie Olsen”, pg. …show more content…
While her teenage years were taking place, she decided to join the Young People’s Socialist League and the Young Communist League. Eventually, she left her high school by the name of Omaha Central High School before she was able to finish her junior year. She quit school in hopes to get money. She worked for low wage jobs and had a hard time supporting her family. At the age of 18, Tillie Olsen was arrested for starting a women’s strike (“Tillie Olsen” pg. 1). She later returned to her home down and later to the town of Faribault in Minnesota due to two lung diseases (“Tillie Olsen”, pg. 2). She then gave birth to her first daughter and named her Karla. Olsen began starting writing “Yonnondio: From the Thirties” and published it in 1974. Olsen enjoyed teaching and entered a class of writing at San Francisco State University. In 1978, Tillie Olsen published an essay about the silenced voices if women and how they confronted the silence. There, she began to write her famous short story “I Stand Here Ironing.” She received a Guggenheim Fellowship award for her outstanding work and later began teaching at Stanford University. This story was written after the Great Depression. It was inspired by women who must watch over their families while their husbands went to work to make money to buy food (“Tillie Olsen”,
The literature of the nineteenth century cataloged the social, economical and political changes during its period. Through it many new concerns and ideologies were proposed and made their journeys through intellectual spheres that have endured and kept their relevance in our own period today. The literature, sometimes quite overtly, introduced the issues arising with the changes in society specifically due to the industrial revolution. In this mixture of new ideas was the question of women's labor and functions among this rapidly changing society. American authors as well as Victorian authors, like George Gissing and Mabel Wotton, explored these issues somewhat explicitly during this period. In America, Louisa May Alcott and Charlotte Perkins Gilman expressed these issues in short stories with strong implications of the dangers of unfulfilled or unsatisfying labor available to women.
As many women took on a domestic role during this era, by the turn of the century women were certainly not strangers to the work force. As the developing American nation altered the lives of its citizens, both men and women found themselves struggling economically and migrated into cities to find work in the emerging industrialized labor movement . Ho...
Prior to World War II women were expected to be housewives by cleaning, cooking, and taking care of children. Women were discouraged to work outside of the home and often judged by the rest of society. Bobbie Ann Mason gives great examples of the duties expected by women of the time period and her grandmother is a perfect model of domesticity. At one point Mason talk about a conversation between her grandmother and mom. Mason’s mom, Christy, decides to go back to work, but her grandmother disapproves and says she should be home taking care of her girls (Mason, 116). Christy on the other hand is an example of the modern woman. A woman willing to go to work outside of the home to help support her family when needed. Christy gets a job at a clothing company. Mason says that many women were leaving the farm and taking work in factories (Mason, 83). During and after World War II many women began to work outside of the home changing the idea of what it meant to be a women and the duties that accompanied.
In the short story "The Lamp at Noon” by Sinclair Ross, the characters Ellen and Paul both struggle to survive the dust and drought year after year during the great depression, but soon realize they are faced with unbeatable odds. The characters are torn apart by these harsh elements of nature and their own inability to cope with the changing conditions. This story resembles some very sad but very real aspects of how early farmers were affected and how they lived during the Great Depression The mood and attitude which the author portrays is of loneliness, isolation and of harsh environment.
On the prairies, Canadian farm women faced very specific challenges. In the article ““I like to Hoe My Own Row”: A Saskatchewan Farm Woman’s Notions about Work and Womanhood during the Great Depression,” Author Cristine Georgina Bye’s great-grandmother, Kate Graves’ specific challenges mainly consisted of keeping her family afloat despite her growing age while also balancing traditional feminine roles with the hard labour of farm work. Kate Graves’ “spent seventeen-hour days churning butter, raising chickens, tending children, cooking, cleaning, canning, sewing, and gardening” during a time when farming was nearly impossible due to droughts and the harsh economic conditions of the Depression. Graves’ family, like other’s in rural Saskatchewan, suffered losses during the thirties, as many families would put off medical procedures because of lack of funds. Graves’ lost her daughter to tuberculosis in 1933 and in total her region lost “22 percent of its farm population.” There is very little written about Canadian farm women during the Great Depression, but what there is written about these women showcases a particular strength and determination that can only be found in the rural lands of the
...ocuments and quotes about people’s feelings during this time and because of that they don’t often get considered. Even today it is hard for us to imagine these women being real people with families and busy lives. These women were working around the clock in other people’s houses. Many of them mentioned that they didn’t have set hours. People in the house would call for them during all hours of the day and they never had time for themselves. One women shared just this in her interview when she said, “I had a good room and everything nice, and she gave me a great many things, but I’d have spared them all if only I have had a little time to myself.” Life was extremely difficult for these women even though they weren 't doing strenuous labor. They were forced into the lives of other families with unpredictable hours while still trying to maintain a life of their own.
One of the major impacts that the Great Depression had on many families was salary income. The economic collapse of the 1930’s was overwhelming in the way that it was affecting the citizens. “Unemployment jumped from less than 3 million in 1929 to 4 million in 1930, 8 million in 1931, and 12.5 million in 1932.” In just one year, a quarter of the nation’s families did not have any salaries entering their household, and during the first three years, an average of 100,000 workers was fired each week. When it became too difficult for the men to find work it became more popular for women and children to enter the work force. The women began to find it easier to find jobs working ask: clerks, maids, and other simple jobs to bring some sort of income into their home. There was a huge decline of food prices, but many families did without things like milk and meat and unless they could grow their food they would not buy it. In order to save the little money that they had many families started ignoring medical care, began growing and producing their own food, canning the food that they grew, and buying used bread. Although the women were able to bring a small amount of money home with them, something was better than nothing in this case. The average family income had tumbled to 40 percent, from $2,3...
In this paper we will be look at the book called “Lying on the Couch”. I will be going over what I saw as the biggest ethical issues that I read about in this book, I will also go over my thoughts on this book and the ethical problems that I saw for Dr. Lash, Carol and Marshal Streider. I will explain my personal opinion regarding self-care and my reasoning as to why it is so important to maintaining clear boundaries.
"I Stand Here Ironing" is a powerful story by Tillie Olsen, that tells the hardships of a single mother trying to raise her child. The narrator and her daughter, Emily, endure many conflicts as they go through life. The narrator is ironing the entire time, and soon is prompted to discuss her daughter Emily. After a moment, the narrator begins to reflect on both of their lives. This reflection soon begins a heartfelt story, explain the life of a mother and daughter. In "I Stand Here Ironing" Tillie Olsen uses flashback stories to create a powerful story with multiple themes.
From 1914 to 1939 the United States experienced both terrible and wonderful events. World War I, women’s suffrage, the Great Depression, and the Harlem Renaissance all occurred during these years and from them came a new look on life. This period became known as the Modern Period where a new sense of creativity evolved. Katherine Anne Porter lived through the Modern Period and contributed to the literature of this time. She wrote “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” which takes a look at the life of a woman who had many trials, but made the most of what she had. This story begins with Granny Weatherall on her deathbed with her daughter Cornelia and a doctor taking care of her. During this time her thoughts switch between present and her conscience.
The cotton mills in Lowell, Massachusetts were home to many young women that were in need of work. Girls as young as ten years old were off working in the cotton mills trying to earn money for their families. The girls couldn't work out on the farms in the fields so they had to resort to the mills to make a living. Life was not easy for these young girls, but because their families were so poor they had to deal with it so that they were able to send money home. The girls were pushed to their limits by the people running the mills, yet they continued to work and work hard. The working conditions were almost unbearable in the mills because the girls received poor pay, the work was dangerous, and they worked extremely long hours.
William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” are two enticing short stories, with numerous similarities and differences. Both stories were written between the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. During this time, the views on women were different than they are today; women were viewed as insignificant compared to men. In Faulkner and Gilman’s stories, the protagonist is a woman who winds up isolated due to the men in their lives. As a result, these women suffer from psychological problems. Although the protagonists have different journeys in their suffering, the root of their suffering
Tillie Olsen was a part of the first generation of American feminists and she was a mother herself. She was influenced by her own experiences and the time period to investigate traditional female gender roles and conventional motherhood. In her short story “I Stand Here Ironing” she critiques traditional motherhood and the patriarchy's influence on society by analyzing the experience of a single mother struggling to raise her daughter, Emily, during the great depression. Her daughter, Emily, has a rough childhood and is isolated from her mother for the majority of her youth, whether in the daycare center or in the medical clinic, and she is never truly capable of forming the traditional mother-daughter bond. Tillie Olsen scrutinizes the
Many women in modern society make life altering decisions on a daily basis. Women today have prestigious and powerful careers unlike in earlier eras. It is more common for women to be full time employees than homemakers. In 1879, when Henrik Ibsen wrote A Doll's House, there was great controversy over the out come of the play. Nora’s walking out on her husband and children was appalling to many audiences centuries ago. Divorce was unspoken, and a very uncommon occurrence. As years go by, society’s opinions on family situations change. No longer do women have a “housewife” reputation to live by and there are all types of family situations. After many years of emotional neglect, and overwhelming control, Nora finds herself leaving her family. Today, it could be said that Nora’s decision is very rational and well overdue.
The meaning that could be made in “I Stand Here Ironing” through a Marxist lenses is that financial crises diminish an individual's status and growth in society. The story took place during the Great Depression where poverty was high and finding work was difficult, especially for a women. The narrator was a single mother with a lower class social standing because of the economic crisis. It was difficult for a single women to hold a job and balance time with her family. Therefore, her daughter, Emily, was affected internally and externally because of her mother’s financial difficulties. Emily loathed the caregivers she was handed to, but never rebelled against it. She was constantly sick and never had an appetite which made her incredibly thin.