The short story "I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen begins with a mother ironing and responding to a question about her daughter, Emily. The mother begins to think back about her daughter growing up. Emily was born during the Depression, so as a single parent, her mother had to work many jobs to provide a life for her little girl. Getting through to Emily on an emotional level and showing her the love she needs has always been difficult because Emily was a very awkward little girl who isolated herself from others. Throughout the course of the story, mother's actions and words reveal her to be a loving mother wrestling with her own guilt of her daughter's upbringing, who wants nothing more than to show her daughter, Emily, the love she has always felt but can never give her.

Emily's mother feels guilty over mistakes she made as a young mother with Emily because she feels she has not given her daughter the life she deserves and may have caused Emily to have some of the problems she evidently now has. In the sto

Mother and her new husband sent Emily away to a convalescent clinic where the nurse claimed "she can have the kind of food and care you can't manage for her" (301). Mother relies heavily upon what others think she should do. While she was nursing Emily: "I did like the books then said. Though her cries battered me to trembling and my breasts ached with swollenness, I waited till the clock decreed" (289). After months of mother trying to get Emily out of the clinic due to her lack of eating, they took her home to care for her. Some days, mother kept the children at home from school to have them all together. Mother did this because "Those were the only times of peaceful companionship between her and Susan" (303).

ry, the mother explains the hardship they both endured when Emily was born: "I was nineteen. It was the pre-relief, pre-WPA world of depression" (300). Without the knowledge of how to raise a child or the necessary funds, she does not spend much time with her daughter. Mother takes Emily to the father's family until she saves enough money to bring her back. Mother noticed

Some common words found in the essay are:
Getting Emily, Susan Emily, Tillie Olsen, Stand Ironing, mother times, emily born, little girl, daughter mother, loving mother, 300 emily, mother tries, daughter emily, own guilt, emily mother,
Approximate Word count = 745
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)