Mother Daughter Relationship in I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olsen “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen If Only.... Almost every parent dreams of giving their children what they never had growing up. However, unavoidable situations cannot be changed and we are forced to make do with what life gives us. Life’s twists and turns are not always predicted, we get caught up with other things and lose sight of the important ones. In the story, “I Stand Here Ironing,” Tillie Olsen portrays the life and regret of a young single mother struggling to raise her daughter Emily. Olsen points out through uncontrollable circumstances in society, Emily’s mother is forced to become a working-class mother who must hold down a job and care for her child. To many the ideal mother-daughter relationship is not like the one we find is this story. This is neither the fault of the mother nor daughter. In the beginning, while she is ironing, the mother of a nineteen-year-old girl reflects on her daughter’s childhood. She is caught between feeling responsible for Emily’s unhappy childhood and realizes that she was powerless in making her life better due to the lack of alternatives. As she is ironing, the mother remembers back to when her eldest daughter was an infant. She was a young, inexperienced mother who followed “like the books said” (204) and considered Emily to be “the first and only one of [her] five [children] that was beautiful at birth” (203). During the worst years of the Depression, her husband deserts the family leaving them to fend for themselves. With no money or savings available to support the two, her mother is forced to find work and Emily is handed over to a variety of temporary ... ... middle of paper ... ... her child. Olsen articulates the difficulties, obstacles, and struggles faced with non-privileged families in the story. The character of the mother in “I Stand Here Ironing” is one that is strong and wise. Throughout the story, she reflects on various events in Emily’s life that shaped the person she is today: self-sufficient and independent. At first while she is still young, she looks at her helpless daughter with guilt and pity because she is not able to give her the life she deserves. However, Emily grows into a young adult woman, Olsen points out the mother soon realizes that her daughter is a lovely, capable woman with potential. Her only hope is that Emily herself can and will realize it for herself. Olsen’s suggest that our circumstances shape who we are, but no matter the situation, we can still overcome them because there is potential in everyone.
Life is sad and tragic; some of which is made for us and some of which we make ourselves. Emily had a hard life. Everything that she loved left her. Her father probably impressed upon her that every man she met was no good for her. The townspeople even state “when her father died, it got about that the house was all that was left to her; and in a way, people were glad…being left alone…She had become humanized” (219). This sounds as if her father’s death was sort of liberation for Emily. In a way it was, she could begin to date and court men of her choice and liking. Her father couldn’t chase them off any more. But then again, did she have the know-how to do this, after all those years of her father’s past actions? It also sounds as if the townspeople thought Emily was above the law because of her high-class stature. Now since the passing of her father she may be like them, a middle class working person. Unfortunately, for Emily she became home bound.
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
No matter what actions or words a mother chooses, to a child his or her mother is on the highest pedestal. A mother is very important to a child because of the nourishing and love the child receives from his or her mother but not every child experiences the mother’s love or even having a mother. Bragg’s mother was something out of the ordinary because of all that she did for her children growing up, but no one is perfect in this world. Bragg’s mother’s flaw was always taking back her drunken husband and thinking that he could have changed since the last time he...
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...
The lack of support and affection protagonists, Sula Peace and Nel Wright, causes them to construct their lives on their own without a motherly figure. Toni Morrison’s novel, Sula, displays the development of Sula and Nel through childhood into adulthood. Before Sula and Nel enter the story, Morrison describes the history of the Peace and Wright family. The Peace family live abnormally to their town of Medallion, Ohio. Whereas the Wrights have a conventional life style, living up to society’s expectations.The importance of a healthy mother-daughter relationship is shown through the interactions of Eva and Hannah Peace, Hannah and Sula, and between Helene Wright and Nel. When Sula and Nel become friends they realize the improper parenting they
The narrator reflects and regrets on her daughter Emily’s past. The narrator feels guilty about leaving Emily at a neighbor’s house, sending her to nursery school and a convalescent facility. In her short story “I Stand Here Ironing”, Olsen describes the convalescent home as she insert “The parents stand below shrieking up to be heard and the children shriek down to be heard, and between them the invisible wall “Not To Be Contaminated by Parental Germs or Physical Affection” (226). When Emily is in the convalescent facility, she is cut off from outside world, including the communication with her mother. Besides the convalescent facility, the iron itself also has a symbolic meaning. In the beginning of the short story, Olsen writes “I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormented back and forth with the iron” (223). The narrator is ironing during a phone conversation with an adult concerned about Emily 's well-being. Toward the end, the author express the Emily’s feeling when she says “Aren’t you ever going to finish the ironing, Mother” (229). The non-stop ironing annoys Emily because her own mother is willing to spend the time on ironing despite it would extend the distance between the two of them. The simple act of ironing not only symbolizes the duty as a mother but also represent the helplessness to change the circumstances. The absences of the narrator and the lack of communication weakens the bond
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.
Up to the very end of Miss Emily’s life, her father was in the foreground watching and controlling, and Miss Emily unrelentingly held on to the past. She went as far as keeping a loved one’s body locked upstairs in her home for years. While admiring her loved one’s body from up close and afar, she managed to maintain a death grip on the past.
No two mother and daughter relationships are alike. After reading “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker and “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan I realized that the two stories had the same subject matter: mother and daughter relationships. These two stories show different cultures, generations and parenting methods. Although the two mothers act differently, they are both ultimately motivated by the same desire: to be a good parent. In addition, while researching related articles, I realized that there were two recurring themes of mothers and daughters: respect and diverse ways of parenting.
Eva’s lack of value for motherhood shaped the lives of her family as well as her own. Because of her negative feelings toward motherhood, many of the people surrounding her have similar values. Eva reflects her community’s negative perception of motherhood by being straightforward about it and passing it down through her family
Emily attempts to recapture her past by escaping from the present. She wants to leave the present and go back to a happier past. Miss Emily wants to find the love she once knew. “After her father’s death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all” (243). Emily alienates herself from everyone when the two people she has loved most in her life go away. She becomes afraid to grow close to anyone in fear of losing them again.
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 deprivations she had endured.
Emily was kept confined from all that surrounded her. Her father had given the town folks a large amount of money which caused Emily and her father to feel superior to others. “Grierson’s held themselves a little too high for what they really were” (Faulkner). Emily’s attitude had developed as a stuck-up and stubborn girl and her father was to blame for this attitude. Emily was a normal girl with aspirations of growing up and finding a mate that she could soon marry and start a family, but this was all impossible because of her father. The father believed that, “none of the younger man were quite good enough for Miss Emily,” because of this Miss Emily was alone. Emily was in her father’s shadow for a very long time. She lived her li...
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...
Motherhood is a traditional role for women. From the time they are young, girls are taught to grow up, marry and become mothers. Of course they can do other things with their lives like play sports, have careers, and travel, but an overwhelming amount of women want to be mothers no matter what else they accomplish with their lives. It is common knowledge that being a good mother is one of the hardest jobs in the world. It is to forever have a special link with another person or people and have a tremendous influence, maybe the most tremendous influence over their lives. Motherhood is a roller coaster ride for women, full of ups and downs, fears and accomplishments. But what happens when motherhood defines who a woman is? All children grow up, and while a woman is always a mother, children need their mothers less and less until eventually their dependence is very minimal. What happens to the woman whose singular role and purpose is no longer needed? In The Summer Before The Dark, and The Fifth Child, the maternal roles of Kate Brown, and Harriet Lovatt are analyzed and traditional motherhood behavior is deconstructed due to these characters’ experiences and relationships with their children.