"I Stand Here Ironing"

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how the mother in "I Stand Here Ironing" is stymied by guilt, helplessness and frustration for the poverty and providence that led her Emily to be a child that was rarely smiled at, often responsible for more than her years could handle and constantly faced with a look of worry from her mother. The paper explains the mother's many financial and other difficulties and relates that she actually followed all the then current advice on childrearing that promoted distance and little affection. The paper highlights this connection of distance between the mother and daughter.

From the Paper:

"The mother is disturbed but has no answers, that will help her go back in time and allow Emily's childhood to be one that was not filled with fear, bad secondary care giving and a constant look of worry on her mothers face. She raised her oldest child, without the father, as he could not provide for them and therefore walked away. Necessity made it so the mother had to send Emily to her father's family at least twice, where she became a different child. When she was with her mother she often had bad secondary care givers, cruel nursery teachers and angry old ladies, who were willing to watch her for free."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Lidoff, Joan. "Fluid Boundaries: The Mother-Daughter Story, the Story-Reader Matrix." Texas Studies in Literature and Language 35.4 (1993): 398-420.
• Carter, Susan ed. Mothers and Daughters in American Short Fiction: An Annotated Bibliography of Twentieth-Century Women's Literature. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993.
• Olsen, Tillie, I Stand Here Ironing Retrieved October 1, 2007 from: http://ee.1asphost.com/shortstoryclassics/olsenironing.html
• Weissbourd, Richard. The Vulnerable Child: What Really Hurts America's Children and What We Can Do about It. Reading, MA: Perseus Books, 1996.

More papers on "I Stand Here Ironing":

• Analytical Essay # 125716 : "Tillie Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing"
• Analytical Essay # 25360 : "I Stand Here Ironing": An Analysis"
• Book Review # 119223 : "Tillie Olsen's Life and "I Stand Here Ironing"
• Analytical Essay # 29344 : "I Stand Here Ironing"

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