I Stand Here Ironing

     Tillie Olsen in her short story, I Stand Here Ironing, conveys the thoughts and memories of a mother and her relationship with her child during the Great Depression. The story is narrated by the mother in a first person point of view. The mother stands ironing while someone calls her and tries to arrange a meeting so they can discuss her daughter’s future. The mother then starts to remember how her actions and behavior shaped her oldest daughter. The story seems to take place during the 1950’s since her daughter was a child of her age, a child of depression. The story mainly describes the early years of the protagonist, Emily. She was born to a young and distracted mother and a father that left her when she was barely eight months old.

    The mood in this short story appears somber and melancholic. The mother, who serves as the narrator, while recalling her daughter’s infancy, thinks of all the ways she failed as a mother and how different she would have made her choices if she only knew more or was more experienced. I think that the prevailing conflict in this story is a man vs. circumstances conflict. There is an external context which influenced the story greatly. The mother had to work hard in times in which the country’s economy declined and then during the Second World War, very difficult and challenging times for a single mother raising a child.

 

     I liked this story but at the same time I felt a little sad and empathetic towards the characters. The mother was trying to do what she then believed was the best for her daughter. It must have been really hard on both of them to live under those circumstances and the worst is that space or distance that was created between them and know can’t be filled. Nobody might say anything about those feelings of guilt or regret but I believe that both of them feel the tension of the past events and not even time can heal something like that.