I Stand Here Ironing ~ Unit 5

In the short story, I Stand Here Ironing, Tillie Olsen uses the narrator’s mental stream of conscious thought to express her inner most feelings about her parenting flaws. By using this technique, Olsen has allowed readers to analyze her personal rationales and reasoning for raising her daughter the way she did. The narrator was forced to leave Emily in the hands of various child care providers, but the reason she feels guilty is the mere fact that Emily’s mother knew that these providers were not able to provide the nurturing, healthy environment that Emily needed for optimal growth. “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” (284). She felt responsible for the fact that Emily had not been given the attention she deserved, at home and at school. “I was working, there were four smaller ones now, there was not time for her. She had to help be a mother, and housekeeper, and shopper. She had to set her seal” (287). The narrator feels that her lack of time has greatly influenced Emily’s development. “She was a child of anxious, not proud, love. We were poor and could not afford for her the soil of easy growth.. I was a young mother, I was a distracted mother” (288).

Although the narrator believes she has failed as a mother with Emily, she didn’t have the resources to help foster the growth of her daughter. “It was the only place there was. It was the only way we could be together, the only way I could hold a job” (284). She had to make sacrifices as a single mother if she wanted to keep her children, and she had made a significant effort to show Emily that she was loved, although it was often after she was completely exhausted. “I would start running as soon as I got off the streetcar, running up the stairs…” (284). The narrator has not shown signs of being an inadequate mother, but rather, she was forced to choose between being a supportive, loving mother to Emily and fulfilling her role as the sole financial supporter of the family.