Tillie Olsen's "I Stand here Ironing" is told as an interior monologue held by the mother who has been contacted by school officials about her daughter. the monologue of the narrator/mother consists of a stream-of-consciousness response to the officials. this structure provides a dramatic context as well as establishing the narrators confrontational tone in contrast to her quiet, repressed personality.
in her essay "I Stand Here Ironing motherhood as experience and metaphor" Joanne S Frye writes: the narrative structure....generates a unique capacity for metaphorical insight into the knowledge that each individual..like the mother and the daughter..can act only from the context of immediate personal limitations,
in her essay "I Stand Here Ironing motherhood as experience and metaphor" Joanne S Frye writes: the narrative structure....generates a unique capacity for metaphorical insight into the knowledge that each individual..like the mother and the daughter..can act only from the context of immediate personal limitations,