[1] Tillie Olsen’s “I stand Here Ironing” centers around two main characters: Emily and her mother. While Emily’s mother appears to be neglectful and at times selfish, upon further examination of her character, voice and appeal to the reader's pathos, the mother actually holds her daughter's well being above her own. The pair endure hardship throughout the text, but the mother always does the very best she can to raise her daughter, making every decision with Emily’s best interest as the central factor. [2] As Olsen weaves her narrative, she hints and suggests details about the mother. Usually mother makes an off-hand comment about something other than herself but the particular way the thought is phrased and her choice of words says something about the mother and the way she is feeling. Olsen doesn’t spend a lot of textual space developing a rich characterization of the mother; the details given about Emily’s mother are sparse at best. The majority of information the reader has about the mother comes about as context or in reference to Emily’s life, a rhetorical indicator that the mother’s life is second to Emily’s The narrator - Emily’s mother - is never even properly named, perhaps intentionally so that the readers must always think of her as “The Mother”, which begs the reader to parallel her with the archetypal mother figure. [3]When the narrative opens, the mother’s first sentence sets a tone that can be easily missed: “what you asked me moves tormented back and forth with the iron” (671). The prose has only just started but the reader already knows that the mother is tormented by something. In a few lines, we find that she is tormented by the guidance counselor’s call. Emily’s guidance counselor is seeking help from ... ... middle of paper ... ...hough the two are certainly related). It’s not regarded as wholly irresponsible or neglectful to put your child to bed, and then go out for an hour or two, assuming the child knows you’re gone but will be back soon. Therein lies absolution for the parents, as it was suggested that they had gone out other nights without injury to Emily and the fact that this one instance sticks out so much in the narrator's mind suggests that it was a fluke. [8] Though there are a variety of times at which the mother appears to be neglectful, like sending Emily away, or leaving her home alone, though the mother is ultimately looking out for Emily’s best interest. Through being a single mom in the great depression, with no support from anyone for many years, she held her daughter's welfare above all else, regardless of the difficulty and struggle it would create in her own life.
Although, a mother’s determination in the short story “I Stand Here Ironing” mother face with an intense internal conflict involving her oldest daughter Emily. As a single mother struggle, narrator need to work long hours every day in order to support her family. Despite these criticisms, narrator leaves Emily frequently in daycare close to her neighbor, where Emily missing the lack of a family support and loves. According to the neighbor states, “You should smile at Emily more when you look at her” (Olsen 225). On the other hand, neighbor gives the reader a sense that the narrator didn’t show much affection toward Emily as a child. The narrator even comments, “I loved her. There were all the acts of love” (Olsen 225). At the same time, narrator expresses her feeling that she love her daughter. Until, she was not be able to give Emily as much care as she desire and that gives her a sense of guilt, because she ends up remarrying again. Meanwhile narrator having another child named Susan, and life gets more compli...
Tillie Olsen makes the narrator contradict the ideal housewife of the 1950s image for a reason. By doing this, she shows that even if you are a less than perfect mother and or housewife, it is not always your fault if things go wrong. For instance, if the narrator in this story exemplified the image of a 50s housewife, we, the readers, would not even consider blaming her for Emily's condition as well as for her relationship with Emily. However, the narrator does not exemplify the ideal image of a housewife. Thus, we, as the audience, are compelled to blame her imperfections. However, as the story goes on, it is realized that the narrator did the best that she could for Emily. She was a first time mother with no safety net. Her situation as a single mother and sole provider during Emily's early years left her with no choice. She did what she had to do.
The main Character in the short story “I Stand Here Ironing” by Alice Walker explains in the beginning of the story that she has 2 children and one is coming to visit her from school in Augusta. Mama had decided to send Dee off to school in Augusta after their house caught on fire and she was now coming home to visit Mama and her younger sister Maggie. Mama says “Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: she will stand hopelessly in the corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eying her sister with a mixture of envy and awe”(Walker 155). Maggie was in the house when it caught fire, her mother had to drag her out but Dee and been out first so her does not have
We had long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door. So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn 't have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized.’ (25) This complete sheltering leaves Emily to play into with in her own deprived reality within her own mind, creating a skewed perception of reality and relationships”(A Plastic Rose,
For years Miss Emily was rarely seen out of her house. She did not linger around town or participate in any communal activities. She was the definition of a home-body. Her father was a huge part of her life. She had never...
... she also believes Emily turned out well, because she is not helpless and she can find her way. Emily’s mother realizes she has no control over the circumstances, now only the ability to respond to them and to learn from the experiences. This allows a reconciling process to occur within her, because although she was not able to raise Emily like she wanted to, she did the best she could under the circumstances.
life and looked for a way to gain her freedom. Emily must endure her fathers
In the short story "I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen, the reader is introduced to a mother living in the midst of the Great Depression dealing with angst and anxiety towards her daughter Emily. Because this story looks back during the Great Depression when Emily was born the mother's trauma is coming between the both of them. The mother wants her daughter to live a beautiful life, however, poverty, depression and dislocation has built a wall between the two women.
When experiencing regret, a person has the tendency to repeatedly replay the details of whatever caused that emotion. However, recounting past events is only the first step in the healing process, but it is not the end solution. This is abundantly evident in Olsen’s story which begins with the narrator’s rapid emotional descent into regret. This happens when, as she has probably done a thousand times before, an unnamed third party questions the mother about her eldest daughter, Emily, asking how they can “help” and “understand her” better (Olsen 607), for surely she would know. Unfortunately, the answer to this request sends the mother helplessly down memory lane into regret valley. With Olsen’s strong symbolism, the reader becomes more keenly aware of the inner “torment” she feels while reminiscing about her callow method of raising Emily. Consequently, as the mother “moves… back and forth” emotionally, ...
It was hard for her mother to have a baby at a young age herself and try to make ends meet was not easy. She needed to lean on others for help, which she thought at the time was right thing to do, but got caught up on her new family. This is why Emily had so much resentment towards her mother. This story is a great example of a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship. The story does great job showing the mother’s anguish over her daughter, and a depressed teen that needed her mother and is struggling to overcome a very unhappy childhood.
As time went on pieces from Emily started to drift away and also the home that she confined herself to. The town grew a great deal of sympathy towards Emily, although she never hears it. She was slightly aware of the faint whispers that began when her presence was near. Gossip and whispers may have been the cause of her hideous behavior. The town couldn’t wait to pity Ms. Emily because of the way she looked down on people because she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and she never thought she would be alone the way her father left her.
The stories “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, are different in many ways, but are also similar. “I Stand Here Ironing” and “Everyday Use” both focus on the relationships of the mother and daughter, and on the sibling’s relationships with each other. Emily from “I Stand Here Ironing” and Maggie from “Everyday Use” have different relationships with their mothers, but have similar relationships with their sisters. Although the stories are similar in that Emily and Maggie are both distant from their sisters, they differ in that the mother is distant from Emily in “I Stand Here Ironing,” while the mother is close to Maggie in “Everyday Use.”
Emily’s isolation is evident because after the men that cared about her deserted her, either by death or simply leaving her, she hid from society and didn’t allow anyone to get close to her. Miss Emily is afraid to confront reality. She seems to live in a sort of fantasy world where death has no meaning. Emily refuses to accept or recognize the death of her father, and the fact that the world around her is changing.
The domineering attitude of Emily's father keeps her to himself, inside the house, and alone until his death. In his own way, Emily's father shows her how to love. Through a forced obligation to love only him, as he drives off young male callers, he teaches his daughter lessons of love. It is this dysfunctional love that resurfaces later, because it is the only way Emily knows how to love.
Growing up Emily’s father, Mr. Gierson, made her stay in the house and not socialize with others. He taught her that he was only trying to protect her from the outside world. Mr.Gierson was a rude man who felt that things should go his way; therefore, his daughter hopelessly fell for him because she did not know any oth...