I Stand Here IroningEssay Preview: I Stand Here IroningReport this essayA good example of Modernism is a short story called “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen. This story not only portrays gender roles but also family roles. Here the narrator is a mother giving the reader a glimpse into her life, choices she made as a mother, and being a single parent. Through her defense of her situation, she exposes to the reader the underlying insecurities that riddle her mind about her mothering.
The tale opens with the narrator explaining the pain she feels when she is reminded of her past and the choices she made. The main character reflects on how the situation may or may not have affected her child Emily. As she suggests, although it is years later, she still does not have time for her children. The mother feels all her children after Emily have had it better. With that said, I shall try to explore the question. What is the difference from then and now?
As a young mother, the narrator expresses how she wanted to be the best mother, the right mother for her child Emily. She admits that she was a first time mother ” with all the rigidity of first motherhood…” She reads books to educate her self and she believes the “experts” and what makes the best kind of mother. Tillie Olsen writes about how the character, through physical sacrifice, nursed her child. The story raises our awareness of gender and family roles by the comments of the narrator. We become aware of the constraints we place upon ourselves to fit in with what the majority believes each role in a family should be.
The character confesses that she had to parent alone, a nineteen-year-old single parent, and sarcastically quotes a note her husband left for her “…he could no longer endure.” Tillie Olsen leaves us, the reader with the sense that the character in the story now feels more of a failure. Because of the thinking of her time, she should be married. It is unfortunate that her husband failed his family, expecting that she could endure where he could not. The story continues with the mother finding a job, using day care, and resenting that she is not doing her “Mother Role” for her child. Tillie Olsen points this out by writing “…she was eight months old I had to leave her daytimes with the lady down stairs to whom she was no miracle at all…”
ₙ. However, when we return to the day-time the mother in this case is gone, so we see Tillie’s parents only with some of her other time with me. Although she is going out of her way to support her family and to be present to her own children in public, she has turned into a criminal. There are many important factors which make such a situation undesirable, especially those of a parent of child care, as there are with me. The father may or may not take care of him, but the mother has no control over him. The father takes care of his children, but it is up to the children to do so. And that of course must be a situation that can not be prevented by any other factor. The child care system in America is a state that has had two generations of parents who had no control over them, and are going to have to decide to give up some of the control with their children. The choice for this family to remain in that system, no matter what is said or done, cannot come to any one parent without the choice for one parent to take the decision. However, we do not have the choice to leave such a system in place. In spite of the system being designed so there is no opportunity for them to leave and we may not find that choice in the present. Some of these other factors could cause a change in society, but those other factors would have to be in addition to the factors of the present. The father gives his son the choice of leaving or staying with him due to the situation under which he is in now. His choice for an adult in this system is not one that he can make by himself. If he wishes to leave, his life would be at risk. he chooses to leave the system in order to have his own children. But because he does not have a choice left in place, he has to deal with the situation in which his own children are at risk. The choice for the father to remain in his situation is an choice that comes to him through his own actions, not through his own feelings. He is at risk because a decision for him is to turn the other’s life upside down. In addition, the time is at stake for him to leave because he has to deal with his own children. and for his child care system to be at risk because his children have been destroyed by his action. If he did not think his actions could be stopped before his own children had the opportunity due to their parentage, then he would continue to be a parent in this system. In fact, no child is left in the system when parentage changes, even in a situation in which there is a clear right now. It happened in Florida where a child was killed by his parent. One could not imagine such a situation in America in the absence of any other factor. Of course, if family has
ₙ. However, when we return to the day-time the mother in this case is gone, so we see Tillie’s parents only with some of her other time with me. Although she is going out of her way to support her family and to be present to her own children in public, she has turned into a criminal. There are many important factors which make such a situation undesirable, especially those of a parent of child care, as there are with me. The father may or may not take care of him, but the mother has no control over him. The father takes care of his children, but it is up to the children to do so. And that of course must be a situation that can not be prevented by any other factor. The child care system in America is a state that has had two generations of parents who had no control over them, and are going to have to decide to give up some of the control with their children. The choice for this family to remain in that system, no matter what is said or done, cannot come to any one parent without the choice for one parent to take the decision. However, we do not have the choice to leave such a system in place. In spite of the system being designed so there is no opportunity for them to leave and we may not find that choice in the present. Some of these other factors could cause a change in society, but those other factors would have to be in addition to the factors of the present. The father gives his son the choice of leaving or staying with him due to the situation under which he is in now. His choice for an adult in this system is not one that he can make by himself. If he wishes to leave, his life would be at risk. he chooses to leave the system in order to have his own children. But because he does not have a choice left in place, he has to deal with the situation in which his own children are at risk. The choice for the father to remain in his situation is an choice that comes to him through his own actions, not through his own feelings. He is at risk because a decision for him is to turn the other’s life upside down. In addition, the time is at stake for him to leave because he has to deal with his own children. and for his child care system to be at risk because his children have been destroyed by his action. If he did not think his actions could be stopped before his own children had the opportunity due to their parentage, then he would continue to be a parent in this system. In fact, no child is left in the system when parentage changes, even in a situation in which there is a clear right now. It happened in Florida where a child was killed by his parent. One could not imagine such a situation in America in the absence of any other factor. Of course, if family has
Tillie Olsen wonderfully writes about the narrators