oppositions
The story, I Stand Here Ironing, contains binary oppositions which work together to support the structure of the text. I listed several of these oppositions in my notes, but I am only going to discuss a few that I found were connected to each other throughout the story. These oppositions are: the past vs. the present, a healthy Emily vs. an un-healthy Emily, Emily with an appetite vs. Emily without an appetite, and a loving parent vs. a non-loving parent. These oppositions alone do not make the story interesting, however. It is how these oppositions are arranged and tied together that makes the story work. From the beginning of the story the mother was ironing and thinking about what she could do to help her daughter Emily. Her thoughts had a negative connotation, she remembered when Emily was sick, when she was left home alone because her mother had to work, and when Emily was abandoned by her mother and sent to a convalescent home. Emily's mother also recalled her appearance at one time in Emily's life when she looked, "thin, dark, and foreign looking." These thoughts of Emily's childhood are being generated by her mother's attempt to deal with how
" Early in Emily's childhood Emily is sick with the chicken pox, she's sent away to her fathers family, she's left home alone, and she is again sent away to a convalescent home. The opposition then is a healthy Emily vs. " It's apparent that Emily became physically healthier in her later years. And in the eyes of Emily, her mother appeared not to care for her daughter. Which brings me to my next point, Emily's diminished appetite. The lack of time spent with her daughter Emily had an impact on how Emily percieved her mother. This helped me to organize a flow in my paper that I usually have trouble with. There's a line in the story that explains how she hardly ate at all, "I used to try to hold and love her after she came back, but her body would stay stiff and after a while she'd push away. The structuralist approach is an excellent way of looking at writings. This lack of her mother's attention gave Emily the opinion of her mother that she was unloving. Emily's mother loved her dearly, but could not always be there for her. The opposition here is the present vs. The mother tried very hard to be a loving parent, but Emily did not see it that way.
Common topics in this essay:
Wen Emily,
Remember Emily's,
Emily Emily,
Stand Ironing,
emily's mother,
loving parent,
Approaches Paper,
emily's life,
daughter emily,
emily appetite,
left home,
throughout story,
emily sick,
parent emily's mother,
sent convalescent home,
healthy emily vs,
emily's past,
chicken pox,
sick chicken pox,
loving parent vs,
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Acceptance Essays
