Short Story I Stand Here Ironing

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The Best Short Story: I Stand Here Ironing
The short story “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen is the best short story because its setting, characters, and the story line grabs my attention as a reader. It is very easy for me to relate to the mother and the daughter in this short story. The short story illustrates the struggle of a relationship between a mother and daughter during a difficult time during the Great Depression. The narrator of the short story is a single, working mom. The short story starts with a phone call from a teacher or counselor to the mom regarding Emily, her daughter who seems to need help. The daughter in the story is name is Emily. The mom receives the phone call while she is ironing. The phone call prompts the mom to reflect back and reflect on their lives while Emily was growing up. During the entire reflection, the mom is standing their ironing and “moves tormenting back and forth with the iron” (Kirszner & Mandell, ). …show more content…

There always seems to be a sense of doubt on if we are making the correct decision or not. In this short story, the mom is second-guessing her decisions and is questioning whether she made the correct decisions and how it has affected her daughter. According to LeBeau (2017), the experience of maternal guilt is often considered to be the inevitable accompaniment of motherhood. I think the mom struggles everyday with decisions she made while her oldest child was a baby and toddler. The detachment can be understood between the mom and daughter, due to the mom sending Emily off to live with relatives, people they didn’t know, and a convalescent home in order for her to

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