I Stand Here Ironing By Tillie Olsen

“I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen is an extremely sad story about a mother who admits her own guilt that the way she raised her elder daughter Emily, is responsible for how and who she is now. But in the last part of the story, she blames the uncontrollable forces- depression, war and fear as well for Emily’s present situation. She was a teenage single mother who raised her daughter during the great depression era. She had no other choice, but to work for which she couldn’t give enough love, care, and attention to Emily and as a result Emily became a difficult child. Though she is responsible for Emily’s present situation, but the situation she was undergoing is actually responsible for that. The narrator was a victim of her situation, where her husband left her with little Emily and the society created depression, fear and poverty. That’s …show more content…
In that time period, many people became jobless and homeless. The harsh economic condition brought hunger for many people. In the book, “Dear Mrs. Roosevelt”, the writer says about that time period “Children and teens were among the most economically, educationally, and psychologically vulnerable to the ravages of the Depression” (Cohen 18). In the story, the narrator had a terrible condition in raising her daughter under extreme poverty, brought by the great depression. The Work Progress Administration (WPA) provided her and other helpless people work rather than financial help to them. The support less narrator couldn’t play a good role as a mother as she was the victim of uncontrollable social forces. In the story, she said that her realization came late, otherwise she could raise her daughter in a better way. But playing a perfect mother role, when she herself was enduring a lot of problems, was actually not that much easy. So, indirectly the great depression years are responsible to make Emily a difficult