"I Stand Here Ironing" is a short story written by Tillie Olsen, a famous writer. Olsen is best known for her works of fiction, high-lighting the lives of working-class Americans. "I Stand Here Ironing" is about a young mother, trying to make ends meet by using all her time towards her job. By doing so, she ends up, unknowingly, shutting out her daughter, Emily. Emily is known for being understanding, which sometimes causes her to be left out of the spotlight. Due to Emily being considerate, she eventually started to feel left out and forgotten. After numerous failed attempts from her mother and others to help Emily feel wanted and loved, she becomes closed off and finds herself not wanting her mother's affection no longer. Also, the story outlines many themes throughout the story. Two main themes that are widely exhibited are poverty and absence. Both are heavily contributing to the big idea Olsen is trying to emphasize in her Mother-Daughter story.
In the very beginning of "I Stand Here Ironing," the narrator tells us that she cannot provide the "key" to her daughter's life. "There is all that life that has happened outside of me, beyond me." (Olsen 190) It seems very cryptic for a mother to admit that she hasn't any idea of how Emily spends her life. Soon after we figure out that Emily's mother is very caught up in trying to provide for her and Emily that she just didn't have the time to pay any attention to her daughter. Ultimately, Emily was never a high maintenance kid. She never demanded attention nor complain or ask for anything. She's normally very quiet and if she longs for her mother's attention, she lets it be known indirectly. "Can't you go some other time, Mommy, like tomorrow?" (Olsen 192) Emily yearned for her mother to stay home and comfort her but she was aware of the fact that she couldn't. Emily was the type of daughter that understood when she couldn't get want she wanted.
I STAND HERE IRONING In the short story "I stand here Ironing" the main character Mom and Dorothy from "The Waltz" and "But the One on the Right" are both quite similar and different in each of their strengths. ...
Journal for I stand here IroningIn Tillie Olsen"s short autobiographical story I Stand Here Ironing, she gives the reader a glimpse into her life, the choices she made as a mother, and a single parent. ... It turns out that the place was like a prison for the innocent; and that is from that mothers point of view, I cannot imagine what Emily would have to say about it. ... She seems to be eternally obliged to "Stand and IronaE out the wrinkles and mistakes that she has made in the past, and will make again and again....
In Tillie Olsen's I Stand Here Ironing, Emily is the narrator's character of focus. The narrator is clearly her mother who has been left by Emily's father when Emily was less than one year old. Emily was born a beautiful baby during the Great Depression. The coming years will seem to take their tol...
Almost 30 years into this journey, she published the novella "Tell Me a Riddle- along with three other novella's including "I Stand Here Ironing-; the prior earning her the O. ... "I Stand Here Ironing-, the focus of this paper, is found in Prof. ... But I digress. ... I had to work her first six years when there was work, or I sent her home and to his relatives. ... I was a young mother, I was a distracted mother. ...
Finding the Answer Tillie Olsen's short story "I Stand Here Ironing" portrays a mother faced with an overwhelming internal conflict with her oldest daughter, Emily. ... Here, the mother is expressing her frustration while ironing. ... She only wishes to let Emily know that "she is more than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron" (87-88). The image of the mother ironing the dress compares to actually raising Emily as a child. ... The ironing board itself is everybody's" expectations of Emily. ...
In both writings, Tillie Olsen's I Stand Here Ironing and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, the plots center around the problems of a child. In "I Stand Here Ironing", Emily is a young girl affected negatively by her mother's lack of care and the time of cold war. ... "I"m one dollar an hour, Willy! I tried seven states and couldn't raise it. ... Like, Biff, in I Stand Here Ironing, Emily is a young, pessimist and a little lazy girl. ...
oley I Stand Here Ironing "I stand here ironing," a unique phrase uttered by a woman in her conquest of life. ... This phrase is almost whispered by the narrator of "I Stand Here Ironing," Tillie Olsen, and also by many other mothers going through an important stage in their lives. ... I believe this story is based around the hardships of growing up as a woman in the Nineteen-hundreds. ... I feel, however, that this story was based on the emotional pull a mother has to one of her children and how the feelings of emotion race wildly with every moment and situation in that child's life. ...
I stand here ironing "I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen is a depiction of a mother-daughter relationship that lacks involvement and warmth. ... "I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen is a depiction of a mother-daughter relationship that lacks involvement and warmth. ... "I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen is a depiction of a mother-daughter relationship that lacks involvement and warmth. ...
The superego, ego, and id play a major roll in the interpretation of this story. ... This shows the male as being the superego here because the girl isn't ironing and hemming just her own close but also ironing her father's, a male, cloths as well which is an example of servitude. ... This is shown when the superego tells her "this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming" (854) so she will look like the male's idea of a proper female and not be seen as a slut. ... The ego a...