Here I Stand Ironi

1345 Words6 Pages
English 120 19 February 2014 “Ironing Out Our Problems” Tillie Olsen’s short story, “I Stand Here Ironing,” tells, in first person point-of-view, the story of a hard working mother’s mindset about the disconnected, struggling relationship between her and her daughter. The story starts out with the narrator, a young mother, ironing while talking on the phone with someone, perhaps a counselor, about the relationship she has with her daughter Emily. With the very first sentence, “I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormented back and forth with the iron (Olsen 535),” Olsen sets the tone. The tone is more of depression and despair, as if the mother has just been asked a serious question that she does not readily know how to approach and answer. Throughout the duration of the story, the mother talks on the telephone and reminisces. Olsen implicated many literary devices in “I Stand Here Ironing,” –foreshadowing and metaphor, just to name a couple. For example, at the beginning of the story, the mother was suggested by the counselor to meet with him/her to provide an insight of Emily so that they can help her. However, she does not seem interested in speaking with the counselor at all. In fact, she seems very disgusted. She goes on to say in her mind, “You think because I am her mother I have a key, or that in some way you could use me as a key?” (536). She questions the reason of her even attempting to do so because she feels as if it is no good because Emily is already nineteen years old. Therefore, anything that could have happened to Emily to shape her personality and character- good or bad- has probably already happened and is out of her control This foreshadowing leaves readers to believe that something happened to Emily during her upbringing. The fact that the mother seems upset or disgusted with the counselor’s request suggests that
Open Document