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I Stand Here Ironing - Online Essay

I Stand Here Ironing

A Mother’s Decision In the short story "" by Tillie Olsen, the reader is introduced to a mother faced with a strong internal conflict involving her eldest daughter Emily. Emily’s mother makes a very meaningful statement at the end of the story. Her statement was "help [Emily] to know that she is more than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron" (Olsen, 582). This statement shows the reader that the mother wants her daughter to have a better life than what she has had up to this point. Emily’s mother feels as though she has neglected her daughter in some sense. Throughout the story she describes two negative aspects of Emily’s childhood. First she ...

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she was two "all baby loveliness gone" (Olsen, 579). At this time in the story, the reader is able to see a change in the way the mother describes her child. The mother goes from seeing Emily as a beautiful baby to seeing her as a thin two-year-old. Emily grows into a young child who was self-conscience about her appearance, "thin and foreign-looking at a time when every girl was supposed to look [like the] replica of Shirley Temple" (Olsen, 580). Emily’s mother pondered several ways to comfort her daughter’s physical insecurities. The next big decision that Emily’s mother had to make was sending Emily to a convalescent home. The mother was persuaded to send Emily to this school by a social worker. Emily was still a thin girl; the school would often notify her mother that she would not eat. "It took us eight months to get [Emily] released home, and only the fact that she gained back so little of her seven lost pounds convinced the social worker" ...

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I Stand Here Ironing. (2004, April 2). Retrieved February 10, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/I-Stand-Here-Ironing/5592

"I Stand Here Ironing." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 2 Apr. 2004. Web. 10 Feb. 2026. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/I-Stand-Here-Ironing/5592>

"I Stand Here Ironing." Essayworld.com. April 2, 2004. Accessed February 10, 2026. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/I-Stand-Here-Ironing/5592.

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 4/2/2004 04:05:55 PM
Category: English
Type: Free Paper
Words: 643
Pages: 3

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