Analysis Of I Stand Here Ironing

“I Stand Here Ironing”: A Daughter’s Identity Crisis A single woman trying to raise a child alone during a great depression is almost impossible. It is hard for a woman to raise a child on her own. It is even harder when a mother does not have other family members, a steady job, or income to help take care of a child. Tillie Olsen, an American writer who wrote “I Stand here Ironing” while standing at an ironing board herself, demonstrates how being left by a man to raise a child during a time of war and depression can cause a mother to abandon her child and a child to lose herself. Emily is the oldest child of the narrator, who is a young teenage mother trying to raise a baby on her own. This baby is being abandoned throughout her early years …show more content…
The main character Emily in “I Stand Here Ironing” is searching for her identity. Emily’s search for her identity begin when she is abandoned by her mother. In the very beginning of the story the narrator is on the phone telling the caller that she is not the key to her daughter Emily (Olsen …show more content…
The narrator’s family is getting larger. Emily’s mother is having more children. When Susan is born, the mother leaves Emily, a young girl, home alone for a week. Emily gets really sick and is delirious with fever. Emily has another childhood disease. This means when Emily’s mother returns home neither the narrator nor the baby can come around Emily for another week (Olsen 384). This child is now being neglected because she is ill and the mother has a new baby. For two weeks the mother is not doing anything for Emily. Even though the narrator is married to Susan’s father, she is still unable to take care of Emily the way others feel she should. The narrator tells the caller that she is convinced to send Emily to a convalescent home; therefore, she will receive better care. She will also be able to take better care of the new baby (Olsen 385). The mother now realizes that the convalescent home is not a good place, and she asks the caller if they still send children there. This emphasizes that she knows it is not a good place for Emily to live. Emily is not happy at the convalescent home and is becoming less attached to people. Emily is not eating while she is in the convalescent home. Emily is losing weight, so a social worker helps her to come home. Emily is no longer close to anyone who lives in there. The narrator states, “I use to try to hold her after she came back, but her body would