Stories about Womenc

Book Review # 104492

English > Analysis
Literature > American
Literature > Comparative Literature

Compares Tillie Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing" and Alice Walker's "Everyday Use".

870 words () | 0 sources | APA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker and "I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen, are both stories about a relationship between a mother and her daughter and both emphasize the environment and its effect on the character. The paper further points out that the women in these stories are separated from men, which creates a tension between themselves and their neighbors. In addition, the paper relates that both these stories focus on the immediate world of the main characters and yet comment on the situation for others in this class. The women share a certain isolation from the world and also face similar concerns about their daughters. .

From the Paper:

"The setting for "Everyday Use" is such that the act of quilting becomes a way of remembering, a way of recalling the past and memorializing it in the quilt. Indeed, pieces of the past are part of each quilt in the form of such things as "pieces of Grandpa Jattell's Paisley shirts." Three generations of women live in this house together and share enjoyment of the quilts. In "I Stand Here Ironing," the setting is the enclosed world of this woman and her child. The outside world may be represented by employers, the woman downstairs, or the children Emily interacts with at school."

Sample of Sources Used:

Olsen, Tillie. "I Stand Here Ironing." In Literature and the Writing Process, Elizabeth McMahan, Susan Day, and Rubert Funk (eds.). New York: Macmillan, 1993.
Walker, Alice. "Everyday Use." June 6, 2007. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug97/quilt/walker.html.