Essay on Themes Illustrated in Tillie Olsens I Stand Here...

The story begins with a sentence â€Å"I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormented back and forth with the iron† (Olsen 73). It is unusual that the story starts with a description of the mother ironing. This strategy easily draws readers’ attention and introduces the narrator character to the readers. â€Å"I stand here ironing† is a very straightforward and simple description, but yet it conveys a deeper meaning and draws the readers into the narrative. The mother’s ironing provides the metaphor for the whole story. It acts as a vein circulating the whole structure of the story. It is a great metaphor that helps the readers to interpret the story in different levels and perspectives. Ironing can be regarded as a kind of women’s†¦show more content†¦Being a young, non-experienced mother when she gave birth to Emily, she is ambivalent about her parental skills and the influences to Emily’s life. She realizes she could have been a better mother, caring her daughter more and establishing a closer relationship among them. Somehow she feels helpless and she admits that she could not care her daughter to her full potential since she was working. Nevertheless, she doesn’t blame herself for all problems. It is neither a fault of a mother nor a daughter. She concerned Emily, both physically and mentally of course, but it is the hardship of growing up in this world with adversities and hurdles that she must overcome. Emily has no one to blame for being raised in such family with unfortunate surroundings. The narrator shows her unusual toughness as a woman in that time. She expresses her optimism about her daughter’s future at the end of the story, â€Å"There is still enough to live by. Only help her to know – help make it so there is cause for her to know – that she is more than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron (Olsen 77)†. Again using the ironing as the metaphor, the narrator tells the readers she is trying to help her daughter, to strive for a better future. It is possible to escape from the helpless situation, in the narrator’s point of view. Her daughter is neither the dress on the ironing board nor the one who is ironing, the narrator thinks that her daughter has fully control to her