Love and Acceptance

A detailed Summary of Love and Acceptance

Tillie Olsen's I Stand Here Ironing, and Alice Walker's Everyday Use, both address the issue of a mother's guilt over how her children turn out. Both mothers blamed themselves for their daughter's problems. While I Stand Here Ironing is obviously about the mousy daughter, in Everyday Use this is camouflaged by the fact most of the action and dialog involves the mother and older sister Dee. Neither does the mother in Everyday Use say outright that she feels guilty, but we catch a glimpse of it when Dee is trying very hard to claim the handmade quilts. The mother says she did something she had never done before, "hugged Maggie to me," then took the quilts from Dee and gave them to Maggie. In I Stand Here Ironing the mother tells us she feels guilty for the way her daughter Emily is, for the things she (the mother) did and did not do. The mother's neighbor even tells her she sh

I think in the end both of the mothers realize their daughters are okay the way they are. They come to accept their daughters limitations and cherish their quiet gifts. Not everyone can be polished and successful in worldly ways. Maybe that's why Maggie was smiling in the end, her mother finally accepted her as is.

Both Emily and Maggie show resentment towards their sisters. The sisters who God rewarded with good looks and poise. Emily's mother points out the "poisonous feeling" between the sisters, feelings she contributed to by her inability to balance the "hurts and needs" of the two. In Everyday Use we see Maggie "eying her sister with a mixture of envy and awe. She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, that "no" is a word the world would never say to her." Maggie's mother seems to have reinforced this by being unable to say no to Dee also. This is what makes the

Some common words found in the essay are:
Everyday Maggie, Emily Maggie, Stand Ironing, Maggie Emily, Dee Neither, Comparing Dee, Emily Emily, Walker's Everyday, Dee Emily, stand ironing, Dee Susan, emily maggie, mother tells, emily's mother, feels guilty,

Approximate Word count = 605
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous

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Love and Acceptance

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