I Stand Here Ironing
In the short story "I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen, the reader is introduced to a mother faced with a strong internal conflict involving her eldest daughter Emily. Emily's mother makes a very meaningful statement at the end of the story. Her statement was "help [Emily] to know that she is more than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron" (Olsen, 582). This statement shows the reader that the mother wants her daughter to have a better life than what she has had up to this point. Emily's mother feels as though she has neglected her daughter in some sense. Throughout the story she describes two negative aspects of Emily's childhood. First she talks about sending Emily to live with her relatives as a toddler. Next she describes sending Emily to a convalescent home as a young child. The mother ultimately feels guilty for the actions she took to ensure a better life for her daughter.
These decisions caused the mother to constantly nag at her internal self. Emily grows into a young child who was self-conscience about her appearance, "thin and foreign-looking at a time when every girl was supposed to look [like the] replica of Shirley Temple" (Olsen, 580). Emily's character starts to change. She cannot seem to deal with the life that she has given her daughter. ly's mother had to make was to ship Emily off to stay with relatives. Emily came home to a new father and sister. Her mother made this decision so that she could work and save money for their future. The next big decision that Emily's mother had to make was sending Emily to a convalescent home. She often felt threatened by her sister Susan "who for all the five years' difference in age was just a year behind Emily in developing physically" (Olsen, 581). The mother goes from seeing Emily as a beautiful baby to seeing her as a thin two-year-old. This is why the reader is shown an internal conflict throughout the story. The mother was persuaded to send Emily to this school by a social worker. At this point Emily was a mere eight months old. At this time in the story, the reader is able to see a change in the way the mother describes her child. Emily was still a thin girl; the school would often notify her mother that she would not eat.
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