I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olsen - Essay Example

Literature ‘I Stand Here Ironing’ The short story ‘I Stand Here Ironing’ reflects unique style of Tillie Olsen and the perception of events and life grievances. Through the figure of a mother, Olsen portrays life as pointless and colorless which brings negative emotions and despair caused by poverty and hard work. Thesis The figure of a father does not appear in the story, but it has a great impact on life of women, Emily and her mother. Olsen depicts that a father was never around leaving his family during the Great Depression years. Her father left me before she was a year old" (Olsen, 3). The Great Depression was one of the most difficult periods in America history marked by economic crisis and inflation, high rates of unemployment and low wages. It is possible to assume that the Great Depression was the most difficult time for Emily’s mother who worked from morning till night to earn for living. A father was never around and the mother had to work hard deprived a family support and love. A shortage of hours of paid work was a general problem. However, not being employed was a particularly prevalent cause of poverty when women were responsible for maintaining a household. The mother recollects “After a while I found a job, hashing at night … so I could be with her days“ (Olsen 1971, 3). The interaction between the effect of marital status and the effect of employment activity on the risk of poverty is a classic illustration of the point that an individuals chance of being poor did not depend entirely on her personal earning power. It also depends on the role that money plays in relation to other sources of income in the structure of the household economy (Lidoff 1993). In ‘I Stand Here Ironing’, father is the central figure in Emily’s life. Emily was born during the Depression era when her mother was only 19 years old. “Conflict is the implicit subject, itself, a conflict, the establishment of disequilibrium, is the impetus for the evolution of life” (Feddersen et al 1998, 48). The figure of father is a driving force in the dynamics of the short story which creates a story conflict. Olsen provides Emily with a mother, however, who is a substantial force in her daughter’s life. Her mother cannot offer her daughter sound advice, encouragement, and financial resources. Coiner (1993) states that: ”Olsen experiments in developing her narrative strategies … recreated from long and careful listening to the voice of marginalized classes” (257-258). These strategies are reflected in the story and explain despair and depression experienced by Emily’s mother. Olsen vividly portrays that a single mother had no chance to give good education to her child and find a good job. The father has changed life of both characters when left Emily’s mother and a child. It is possible to say that Emily’s father failed to execute his role and social obligations. The father is part of an ideological system that Emily cannot escape. The world of the father is a world that is passing on. His absence is not only a sign of his abstract disembodied power but it is also a sign of his descent from the world, leaving the world a modern wasteland populated by shallow imitations of the absent father. The ambivalence towards the father is a key theme in the short story. The father disappeared from woman’s life long time ago but his image and figure causes sufferings and pain even now (Lidoff, 1993). Emily is hopelessly lost and in search of a miracle. In a world empty of the power of the father, the hope of salvation lies in pulling off some kind of big deal. I agree with this point of view, because Emily seems condemned to reenact the memory of the past and to watch herself forever trapped in time. Lost in the world that the father has abandoned, Emily is disoriented and confused (Coiner 1992). Emily and her mother live in a wasteland world of lost hopes where nobody cares about them and there are hopes for better life. Emily’s strongest attack on absence of father is launched against her mother in the form of a curse which is ironically fulfilled. Unable to bear the horrors of life, the woman escapes to work. Memories of the woman convey the agony of life. Olsen unveils low social position of women and their secondary role in the society. Emily cannot protest and fight against poverty and shortage. Olson vividly portrays that life of women and their destiny is defined and depended upon the men, or absence of men. "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 Emilys father, who `could no longer endure” (Olsen 1971, 4). Although, men had an influence on women’s behavior and their destinies (Coiner 1992). Relations between mother and daughter reflect that a father was never around. Emily’s mother had no time for her daughter, her education and warm family relations. One day her neighbor says to the mother: smile at Emily more when look at her” (Olsen 1971, 5). This remark shows that the mother cannot express her love to Emily adequately as a result of severe conditions of life. Hope is more than a comforting abstraction in the short story. When present, it helps readers with lifes course. People with hope believe that good things will happen to them and are able when confronted with problems to use their energies constructively; indeed, the characters are likely to regard obstacles as challenges and attempt to find a variety of useful coping strategies. In her interview, Olsen comments that instead of being flattened by temporary reversals, Emily and her mother find other ways to achieve their goals. Their very persistence tends to assure them a way. The world is depicted as “dark and thin and foreign-looking … where the prestige went to blondeness, curls, chubbiness and dimples” (Olsen 1971, 7). By using their energies positively in pursuit of favorable results, they are likely to succeed and hence enhance both their sense of what they can do and stimulate their hopes for other favorable results in the future (Coiner 1992). What is most unique about this short story is that it is an exquisitely self conscious exploration of the telling being written. The voice, coming from the teller, has a sound and is heard by the listeners ear. Olsen depicts that the mother’s voice has a new sound and cadence and even different words after her word and story are converted to a written voice that is then read at oral presentations. A central narrative element in this short story is her description of her love. It seems that the woman loved Emily’s father but could not forgive his betrayal. “I wish you would manage the time to come in and talk with me about your daughter. I’m sure you can help me understand her. Shes a youngster who needs help and whom I’m deeply interested in helping" (Olsen 1971, 9). Her love to a husband and a daughter cannot be separated. In fact, she writes that she has always loved her daughter. Olsen writes: "she is more than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron" (Olsen 1971, 12). By rebelling against the determining structures of the family, the daughter simultaneously challenges the nature of the female as seduced, enchained, and subjugated through her sexuality, rendered docile in the social networks. In sum, in the story’s framework desire is transformed into innumerable demands without ever exhausting itself, a phenomenon that has become the basis of the success of modern capitalism. The figure of father is important but he was never around abandoned his family many years ago. By locating the daughters struggle, Olsen signals that the womens struggle to subvert the "symbolic order". Works Cited 1. Coiner, C. "No Ones Private Ground": A Bakhtinian Reading of Tillie Olsens "Tell Me a Riddle". Feminist Studies, 18 (2), Summer, 1992: 257-281. 2. Cusac, A.-M. Tillie Olsen – Interview. The Progressive. November, 1999. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1295/is_11_63/ai_57011105> 3. Feddersen, R.C., Lohafer, S.. Lounsberry, B., Pett, S. Rohrberger, M. The Tales We Tell: Perspectives on the Short Story. Greenwood Press, 1998. 4. Lidoff, J. Fluid Boundaries: The Mother-Daughter Story, the Story-Reader Matrix. Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 35 (4), 1993: 398-420. 5. Olsen, T. Olsen, T. “I stand here ironing”. In Tell Me a Riddle. Delta; Reissue edition. 1971, 3-12. Read More