Who is the narrator speaking to in I Stand Here Ironing?

Who is the narrator speaking to in I Stand Here Ironing?

The unnamed narrator, a mother, is ironing while speaking on the phone with an unnamed individual who is most likely a social worker, teacher, or counselor. The mother likens the back-and-forth motion of the iron to her own mental process as she considers the cautionary statement made by this outside party.

What is the message of I Stand Here Ironing?

In “I Stand Here Ironing,” Olsen suggests that the role of selfless mother that society expects women to embrace is actually an obstacle to any kind of successful self-discovery. Rather than help women achieve self-actualization, motherhood actually strands women in lives laden with toil and excessive responsibility.

What type of narration is used in I Stand Here Ironing?

The narrator’s stream-of-consciousness narration reflects the free-flowing, unstructured form of her thoughts and reveals her struggle to make sense of her situation and find logic among the fragments of her past.

What is Emily talent in I Stand Here Ironing?

Even though she remains enigmatic, Emily does, as her mother says, “leave her seal” (44). Glimmers of her daughter’s unique personality emerge: the jokes her sister Susan steals, the silly words she makes up (like “shoogily”) that the other children use, her talent for mimicry and comedy.

What does the clock symbolize in I Stand Here Ironing?

Clocks and the associated concept of time represent another aspect of the social rules that binds both the narrator and Emily. The narrator frequently makes parenting choices based on societal ideas of when certain milestones should occur, even when she herself does not believe in these choices.

What caused her to think about her daughter in I Stand Here Ironing?

She is prompted to think about her daughter by someone’s request (presumably a teacher’s) to discuss ways to help her. The narrator goes back nineteen years, to the time when her daughter was born. The narrator herself was nineteen at the time, trying to get by during the Great Depression.

Is I Stand Here Ironing Based on a true story?

Tillie Olsen’s story “I Stand Here Ironing” recounts a poor working woman’s ambivalence about her parenting skills and her eldest daughter’s future. Published in Olsen’s first collection of stories, Tell Me a Riddle, in 1961, this first-person story contains many autobiographical elements.

What is the relationship between Emily and her mother in I Stand Here Ironing?

In the story, “I Stand Here Ironing,” Tillie Olsen portrays the life and regret of a young single mother struggling to raise her daughter Emily. Olsen points out through uncontrollable circumstances in society, Emily’s mother is forced to become a working-class mother who must hold down a job and care for her child.

What is the importance of point of view in a story I Stand Here Ironing?

“I Stand Here Ironing” was written in the first person so that we could see Emily the way her mother (narrator) saw her. Through her reverie, we feel the mother’s pain that her daughter felt ugly as a child.

What happens to Emily at the end of I Stand Here Ironing?

Emily is left first in the care of a neighbor, then with the father’s family, as the narrator struggles to make ends meet. Emily finally returns to live with the narrator at the age of two. The narrator leaves her at a nursery school, where the conditions are awful.

What are two themes of I stand here ironing?

“I Stand Here Ironing” looks at the themes of women and femininity through the lens of a mother-daughter relationship. Struggling to make ends meet during the Great Depression, the narrator works long hours and is unable to care for her daughter.

Is the speaker in I stand here ironing a good mother?

She isn’t particularly strong or heroic or brilliant; she’s just an average woman making do with what she has. The story catches the narrator at a rare moment when, amidst the hurly-burly of taking care of a large family on limited means, she finds herself reflecting on and evaluating her life.

How does Emily compare to Susan in I Stand Here Ironing?

While Susan is “golden- and curley-haired and chubby,” Emily is thin and dark-haired. Susan is “quick and articulate and assured,” while Emily is quiet and lacks self-confidence. In short, Susan is “everything in appearance and manner Emily was not” (41).

How did the experiences of the mother in I Stand Here Ironing shape her daughter’s life?

In the beginning, while she is ironing, the mother of a nineteen-year-old girl reflects on her daughter’s childhood. She is caught between feeling responsible for Emily’s unhappy childhood and realizes that she was powerless in making her life better due to the lack of alternatives.

What are two themes of I Stand Here Ironing?

What is the role of the main character in I Stand Here Ironing?

Emily is the central character of “I Stand Here Ironing,” the subject of a fractured portrait that emerges from the narrator’s memories of the past. Emily seems to be a forgotten child, a muted presence in the family.

Is the mother from I Stand Here Ironing a good mother?

“I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen shows us a mother who is struggling through her own life and does not pay any attention to her daughter. The mother in this story happens to be the narrator, and we get the indication that she isn’t a very good mother.