I Stand Here Ironing

In the story “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen the narrator was overwhelmed by guilt. I believe this is because the narrator really realized what she has done during Emily’s whole life.

I think she thinks she should have been there more for her daughter. She had to try later on to make everything better but it was hard to do. “I had to work her first six years when there was work, or I sent her home to her relatives. There were years she had care she hated. She was dark and thin and foreign-looking in a world where the prestige went to blondeness and curly hair and dimples. She was slow where glibness was prized. She was a child of anxious, not proud, love. We were poor and could not afford for her to soil of easy growth. I was a young mother, I was a distracted mother. There were other children pushing up, demanding. Her younger sister seemed all that she was not. There were years she did not want me to touch her. She kept too much in herself, her life was such she had to keep too much in herself. My wisdom came too late. She has much to her and probably little will come of it. She is a child of her age of depression, of war, of fear” (Olsen 288-289). This shows that she had such a big guilt and wish she could have made it up to Emily and to have her understand what she was truly going through during this war.

I think she did some things wrong like at least spend some time with Emily as much as she did to the rest of her children. I think she wasn’t the greatest mother, but I think she really did do the best she could meaning it was the Great Depression era. She had to give up some of the time suppose to be for Emily so she could work to keep them fed and keep them alive. I don’t think she was the best mother but she tried and learned from her mistakes.