In “I Stand Here Ironing” a single working-class mother stands with her hot sizzling iron, rhythmically swaying it back and forth, as she reflects upon her relationship with her oldest daughter, Emily. Her mind travels back in time when Emily was just a baby, she was a precious and tender child. The mother was forced to leave Emily with a neighbor everyday while she went to work. She later has to send Emily to relatives for several months because of her job or lack thereof. When she returns for Emily, she can hardly recognize her, Emily’s baby “loveliness gone” (191). In this compressed narrative, Tillie Olsen describes the helpless vulnerability of a mother numbed by exhaustion and powerlessness; a woman is unnoticed; a woman who has been silenced.
…show more content…
“I Stand Here Ironing” provides a glimpse of a woman’s experience of economic deprivation. At the young age of 19 the mother is forsaken by Emily’s father who tells her that he “could no longer endure” (191). His abandonment demonstrates the “freedom” a man can afford versus a mother, who is the “giver” of life. A mother must endure, suffer, and make due until the child is capable to be on their own. Even as she recollects her experience, she can taste the foul aroma and touch the place where she and Emily shared that long ago. At the time woman were looked down upon if they had a child out of wedlock, which made her situation worse, she was a victim of circumstance and ignorance of the time. As difficult as it was, she was determined to be with her daughter, “It was the only way we could be together…I knew the teacher was evil…” (191-192) she recounts about their faltering
“I Stand Here Ironing” provides a glimpse of a woman’s experience of economic deprivation. At the young age of 19 the mother is forsaken by Emily’s father who tells her that he “could no longer endure” (191). His abandonment demonstrates the “freedom” a man can afford versus a mother, who is the “giver” of life. A mother must endure, suffer, and make due until the child is capable to be on their own. Even as she recollects her experience, she can taste the foul aroma and touch the place where she and Emily shared that long ago. At the time woman were looked down upon if they had a child out of wedlock, which made her situation worse, she was a victim of circumstance and ignorance of the time. As difficult as it was, she was determined to be with her daughter, “It was the only way we could be together…I knew the teacher was evil…” (191-192) she recounts about their faltering