"I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses Tillie Olsen's book "I Stand Here Ironing" that looks at the stresses and guilt feelings that surround motherhood. The paper relates that book is about a mother's reconstruction of her life to frame her guilt properly and possibly purge herself of the same.

From the Paper:

"Motherhood can be a stressful experience and it can become even more complex when fraught with guilt. In the short story, I stand here Ironing, Tillie Olsen transcribes a mother's reconstruction of her life to frame her guilt properly and possibly purge herself of the same. The physical action of the iron as it goes back and forth is juxtaposed with the mental process of reflection on the past and the present. "I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormented back and forth 1 with the iron." (p. 12) A guilt-ridden mother reconstructs her past to understand her daughter's present behavior, blaming herself for possible neglect as Emily was growing up. As mother goes back to fetch her past life, we as readers get a glimpse of Emily's childhood. There are few intrusions that bring her back to the present like "I put the iron down" (p. 12); "Ronnie is calling. He is wet and I change him" (p. 17); "She is coming." (p. 19). But this journey of recollection ends on a positive note, "At the end she comes to understand that she'd done the best she could, given the circumstances--but this simple insight, and her journey toward it, are quietly devastating." (Disher, 2001: 91)"

Sample of Sources Used:

• Tillie Olsen, "I Stand Here Ironing," in Tell Me a Riddle (New York: Dell, 1976)
• Deborah Silverton Rosenfelt, "Tillie Olsen (1913?- )," The Columbia Companion to the Twentieth-Century American Short Story, ed. Blanche H. Gelfant and Lawrence Graver (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000)
• Garry Disher, Writing Fiction: An Introduction to the Craft / (Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 2001)
• Bettina Aptheker, Tapestries of Life: Women's Work, Women's Consciousness, and the Meaning of Daily Experience (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989)

More papers on "I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen:

• Analytical Essay # 133914 : "Everyday Use" and "I Stand Here Ironing"
• Book Review # 119223 : "Tillie Olsen's Life and "I Stand Here Ironing"
• Analytical Essay # 118174 : "I Stand Here Ironing"

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