Literary Essay

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ENGL 1302

The Darker Side of Being a Parent in “I Stand Here Ironing” “I Stand Here Ironing”, by Tillie Olsen, a short story, begins with the narrator receiving a phone call from an un-named person. The story develops a central theme of the unspoken burdens in motherhood that show the darker side of being a parent to a child. While the story starts off with a phone-call, the real conversation takes place in the narrator’s head as she struggles with the conflicts of her past that has led her and her daughter to the place they are at now.
“I Stand Here Ironing”, by Tillie Olsen begins with the narrator speaking on the phone with an unnamed person. The individual is never explicitly stated, but their status could be a social worker, teacher or principal. The person on the phone discusses the narrator’s child, Emily and ask if there is anything that can be done for her. The person on the phone believes Emily is struggling in her life and needs some kind of guidance or help. The narrator does not believe that she can provide any insight on what to do about her daughter just because she is her mother, and the story further develops with reminiscent memories of the narrator with her daughter. Both characters grew up in poverty and the narrator has to work long hours just to get by. This results in her being unable to care for Emily and she has to leave Emily in the care of neighbors. However when problems started to pile up, the narrator sends Emily away in the care of other people. Eventually Emily returns to her mother at the age of two, but she is a sick child and she returns very frail and weak. The mother feels justified in sending away her daughter because of the work that she has to do. This leads to Emily being subsequently ignored by her mother, and when her mother has other children, it further exacerbates the situation. Emily grows up to be a young lady who does not know her purpose and the mother ends her thoughts with hoping Emily to realize who she is one day. This short story centers mainly on the conflict between the narrator and her daughter, Emily. The story reveals the underlying theme of how the unspoken burdens of motherhood shed a darker light on how trying being a parent is. The narrator understands that she fails as a mother where it concerns her daughter, Emily. In the beginning, the narrator is unable to care for Emily because she is constantly working and she is forced to place Emily in daycare. However, she believes her neglect came from the burden of her trying to make ends meet. The narrator has to constantly work, and there came a time where Emily needs to be sent away and the narrator has to “leave her” (Olson 248). After she is able to have Emily back in her care, she states that, “I hardly knew her”. (Olson 248). This kind of attitude further leads to Emily’s neglect and her increasingly growing fragility as a child and later when she grows up. The neglect that is instilled upon Emily is not purposeful. At the core, this story shows how the burden of poverty leads to a mother being unable to care for her daughter as she should. Because the narrator is forced to work to make ends meet for her family, and her other children, she is unable to give Emily the care she needs. The story develops a rather, bitter tone towards Emily’s predicament. While the narrator realizes the problems of her daughter, she seems to understand that she can no longer do anything about it. With her other children she brought more attention to them, but with Emily, it was “too late for Emily” (Olsen 249). This leads to no motherly attention being directed towards Emily. When the un-named individual calls, the narrator ruminates on all the years she had been working and how it has led to how Emily has become. The narrator understands the turmoil that she put her daughter through but she believes that whatever she is doing to provide for her
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