Even though the narrator admits to partial responsibility for her part in Emily’s unhappy childhood, at the same time she excuses herself of full responsibility because of environmental and social circumstances. She looks at her daughter's future, fearful that it will be a desolate, miserable existence resulting from a childhood where there was not sufficient money or time for emotional nourishment. Tillie Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing” introduces a mother-daughter relationship where the mother faces internal conflict regarding her daughter Emily as she narrates her neglect for her daughter, the lack of love the child experiences during her life, and ability to discover comedy during tragic situations, and the cruelty of being a dark little girl in a world that appreciates beauty. Several times throughout Emily’s life she experiences separation from those she cares about. The narrator confesses how she was absent from her daughter’s life during most of Emily’s development.
Annie feels as though her mother is not trust worthy: “ Why, I wonder, didn’t I see the hypocrite in my mother when, over the years, she said that she loved me and could hardly live with out me, while at the same time proposing and arranging separation after separation, including this one. […](Kincaid 89) Annie thinks her mother wants her completely gone from her life. She does not trust that her mother truly loves her and will miss her. She believes that since her mother is the one who set up this separation, she is not as truthful and loving as Annie once believed. Similarly, Lairds sister also felt her mother was not trustworthy: “ My mother I felt was not to be trusted.”(Munro 50) Lairds sister was unwillingly forced by her mother, to stay in the house all day and fill countless jars with various fruits, instead of being outside in the fields with her father doing the work she loved.
While many single mothers worry too much or regret decisions during their children childhood they are satisfied with the result and the out come of there children by the actions their children make after they grown out of their childhood In “I stand here ironing” a mother depicts her first child to have a bad early childhood by making the wrong decision not by choice but simply what got handed to them in a urban world. “She was a miracle to me but when she was eight months old I had to leave her daytimes 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 sharing want with us.”” Narrator did not want leave her child with the downstairs neighbor, but to provide the little she could to her child she made scarifies due to been a one parent family. She did all she could even with the father figure leaving to irrelevant discussion on his part. When she sees the development of her child thru the years she gets warmth never felt. “Now suddenly she was Somebody, and as imprisoned in her difference as she had in anonymity.” In the narrators point of view her child was an outcast, a nobody, but when she got the call from her daughter it seem the sun finally started to shine in her daughter path, she was free.
This short story has reminded me of what my own mother is currently going through right now. She has lost everything from bankruptcy all the way to losing my step father to his affair with alcoholism. The feelings of loneliness and desperateness that I feel for my mother is what I experienced while reading this story. I feel as though my mother feels like there is no way out and could totally relate to Jennie and Jeff. I would love to fix everything for her but I know the only way is to keep going to school.
It is other factors such as age and location that contribute to the relationship and determine the level of closeness. Emily’s lack of emotion towards her mother can be attributed to a number of issues in her youth. Since Emily was born, her mother had been working diligently to support the family. To make matters worse, she was only nineteen when Emily was born. Her husband left early on in Emily’s life and her mother was forced to leave her with friends or send her to day care.
Horton Horton1 English 102-400 S. Johnson July 20, 12 Great Sorrow Many women throughout life will have to endure the terrible news that their significant other has passed away. Also not preparing one’s self for the time of death can definitely impact a person tremendously. However, there are some women that have a deep feeling of relief when they hear the news also. As portrayed by Mrs. Mallard in “The Story of an Hour,” she grieved and also felt relieved. Mrs. Mallard went through a range of emotions such as grief, a feeling of comfort, and despair.
The doll has been passed down from generation to generation in Josephine’s family, and seems to represent the tragedy of each woman’s demise. Josephine’s mother, Manman, is not introduced to readers in good health, but throughout the story the theme of depression is emphasized by the mother’s rapid decline in health and appearance. When Manman is first introduced to readers she is not in good shape. “Her skin barely clung to her bones, falling in layers, flaps, on her face and neck.” Despite her appearance, it seems that she is holding onto some hope. She tells Josephine that the guards “have not treated me badly.” She also describes to her daughter how the food Josephine brings her lasts for many months.
Sue has came to rely on irrational thinking as well. Presenting Concerns Sue comes into counseling being depressed after the death of her husband and the recent birth of her special needs son. She states that her mother was an alcoholic that died when she was very
Especially when she reminisces in the final stanza about the time she was young and beautiful, illustrating her complete lack of confidence. Nevertheless, she is still presented as a foul character who threatens the reader, with the line ‘Be terrified’. The poem also ends with the line ‘Look at me now’ which has a double entendre (double meaning). It could be read as a cry of despair or, as a threat – if you did look at Medusa you would die! This leaves the reader feeling conflicting emotions for the character, probably similar to how Medusa herself feels in the poem.
Women of the time were forced into settings they loathed, which is where the narrator finds herself day after day. Gilman uses the old room and its surroundings as a symbol for her helplessness and sorrow; the suffer feels run down, much life the old mansion. Ironically, all those around the narrator keep throwing her into the room and it only makes her worse; eventually making her want to jump out the barred windows. Much has changed in the treatment of depressed women, “Yellow Wall paper” serve as good documentation of past