A Mother’s Story: Another Analysis of Tillie Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing”

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In the Story “I Stand Here Ironing,” by Tillie Olsen the circumstances that led the narrator to leave her daughter in the care of others are influenced by the fact that she was a young mother abandoned by the baby’s father; therefore forced to work, affecting the very well being of her daughter Emily. The narrator emphasizes, “I was nineteen. It was pre-relief, pre- WPA world of depression” (608). Many women in the thirties were confronting poverty and very oppressive conditions. This was an era where hardship was in an uproar, and it exemplifies the reality that she had very little resources. The narrator is relating to an unknown source the choices she had to make in reference to the care of Emily after the father abandoned her. The mother contends, “She was a miracle to me, but when she was eight months old I had to leave her daytime's with the woman downstairs to whom she was no miracle at all, for I worked or looked for work and for Emily’s father, who ‘could no longer endure’(he wrote in his good-bye note) ‘sharing want with us’” (608). The narrator is being honest with her submissions, as she states, “It was the only place there was.” (608). Moreover, the reality that she had to leave her daughter did ultimately influenced Emily. Childcare, family, and even the institution that she had to endure during her young life is forever embedded in her daughter; just as she(the narrator) stands before an ironing as if to imply that she still works hard. As she looks back in her thoughts, she realizes that Emily never wanted to go to these places. The narrator states, “She always had a reason why we should stay home…Momma it’s a holiday today, no school, they told me” (608-09). Whereas, the narrator is able to remarry and have more children under different conditions, making Emily the underdog, the narrator realizes that as she speaks; ultimately she is

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