"I Stand here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen is an interesting story about a young mother and her first child. I really enjoyed reading this short story, there were a lot of ideas throughout the story that posed many questions. Every mother seems to believe that their child is beautiful, all babies are thoguht to be beautiful, little miracles. The baby in the story, was said to be actually beautiful, not like baby beaustiful, but glowing. The baby grew up to be not so beautiful and charming as it once had been. It must have been so hard for the mother to send her new baby away, to her ex- boyfriends families house, while she made enough money to support the two of them. The baby comes back, what seems like a yaer or two later, complelty changed, she is walking and she is more shy and not as beautiful as she once was.
You dont get to know the childs name until the middle of the story. Her name is Emily. Emily does not complain. When she comes back to live with her mother, she goes to a pre school where the teachers are not great, the food is bad and none of the kids seem to have a good time. Emily never crys or refuses to go, she tries to come up with reasons to stay home though. "Momma you look sick, momma I feel sick" (Emily,pg. 416). Always reasons not to go but never an out right objection to it. The mother seems to really love Emily, but not in an obvious way, that most children, when they are growing up need and strive for. THe mother is said to not smile enough at Emily, therefore Emily does not smile a lot.
It is confusing when Emily gets sent away, I understand that she is sick, but what kind of sick must she be for her mother to send her away to a strange place. Do they send her away so that she does not infect the new baby, Susan, with her diseases? The place that Emily gets sent to seems like a perfect little home for children on the outside, but they are not allowed to keep possessions, they get fed horrible food, and they are not allowed to show emotions "They dont like you to love anybody here" (Emily, pg. 417). When Emily comes home again she seems to have a hard time fitting in and knowing how to love back. Her self esteem seems to be completly gone, yet she still does not complain. Her little sister is so different from her, she is chubby and blonde, what all the girls want to look like, a little Shirly Temple.
The idea of safety is yet again thrown around during this story. I feel like Emily can not feel that safe being in an environment where no one is like her and no one understands her, she never stands up for herself and her mother seems to pay more attention to the other four children. Emily is an after thought to everyone in her life, she does not have her own voice and no one takes the time to listen. Towards the end though, Emily makes us all proud, when she finds her voice in comedy. She wins the high school talent show and realizes that ther eis something important about her. Though the story was not classified as being happy or sad, it ended well, with EMily finding something that she could fit into.
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6 comments:
Hey J,
I agree with most of what you said. One thing that i also noticed in this story that related to "the oldest children" everywhere was that emily did feel left out. she felt that she wasn't pretty because her sister kept getting all the attention. one thing about being the oldest and i know this from life expirence is that you are the expirement. when your parents have another child they will never do the same thing twice because they know what they messed up with you so they poor all their enegry into the next child. its like making a sculpture, you might mess up the first one, but the second one will always be better.
I hate when people say that all babies are beautiful. Becuase that is defenitly not true at all. Most babies are actually kind of really ugly. There squishy and pink and wrinkly. But i do believe that some babies are actually pretty. Its just hard to find them. I didnt like that her name was emily, it didnt seem to fit her. Im not sure what kind of name would have fitted her, but defenitly not emily. Emily seems to be more of a name for a plain girl maybe. im not sure, but she wanst a emily. See, i didnt really understand if she got sent away or if the mom was just talking about a place where she could her sent away. So she did? ok, well thats terrible. When you child is sick take the to the hospital or grandmas house. But i think its weird that a family would send the kid all the way away for at least 6 weeks, it would be heart breaking for the child i think.
I liked that you talked about that, i did too. It confused me though, so you helped me with that.
Hey Jordan
I dont like that either because when babies are first born, I swear, regardless of race they all look the same. Anyway you made some pretty good points. It's interesting that everyone that has read this story seems to get a happy ending from it. I thought that the ending was really sad. Anyway i also thought that the part about her getting sent away was really strange too. It didn't seem like it was the best place for sick children. I mean they feed them crap and they tell them not to show emotion. How does that make you feel better? I didn't understand that part. I think you made some pretty valid points about the story though
Your first two paragraphs are summaries. You start to get into analysis in your third paragraph. I think she is sent away to the "convalescent home" because the mother cannot afford to keep her and care for the new baby. This is where we see poverty having a profound impact on a child. Clearly she is not getting nutritional or emotional sustenance at this place. It also seems like the mother comes to realize this, regret this since she says "It took us eight months to get her released home." It's as if she had to fight to get her daughter back.
I agree that the story ends "well," but I wonder if others agree with us. She does find her voice as you say; the mother seems to acknowledge this but I wonder if the mother learns anything. Is regret enough or do we want more from her? How does one repair such a complex relationship? Is repair even possible?
Caleigh-
Clarification, Emily was said to be very plain when she got older, so Emily, if by your standards, being a "plain name" would ahve fit her
i didnt see her as plain, i saw her as different but awkward.
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