oppositions
The story, I Stand Here Ironing, contains binary oppositions which work together to support the structure of the text. I listed several of these oppositions in my notes, but I am only going to discuss a few that I found were connected to each other throughout the story. These oppositions are: the past vs. the present, a healthy Emily vs. an un-healthy Emily, Emily with an appetite vs. Emily without an appetite, and a loving parent vs. a non-loving parent. These oppositions alone do not make the story interesting, however. It is how these oppositions are arranged and tied together that makes the story work. From the beginning of the story the mother was ironing and thinking about what she could do to help her daughter Emily. Her thoughts had a negative connotation, she remembered when Emily was sick, when she was left home alone because her mother had to work, and when Emily was abandoned by her mother and sent to a convalescent home. Emily's mother also recalled her appearance at one time in Emily's life when she looked, "thin, dark, and foreign looking." These thoughts of Emily's childhood are being generated by her mother's attempt to deal with how
Another pattern I noticed about Emily was her appetite throughout the story. There's a line in the story that explains how she hardly ate at all, "I used to try to hold and love her after she came back, but her body would stay stiff and after a while she'd push away. She ate little. Food sickened her and I think much of life too." Emily wouldn't eat whenever she was sick or mad at her mother. Towards the end of the story, however, this opposition is challenged. In the line, "there was so little time left at night after the kids were bedded down. She would struggle over books, always eating (it was in those years she developed her enormous appetite that is legendary in our family..." It's apparent that Emily became physically healthier in her later years. I say physically healthier because I think mentally she was traumatized as a child due to the lack of attention her mother could give her. Remember Emily's mother was very busy working to support her family and struggling to take care of four other children besides Emily. Throughout the story the narrator jumps from the present to the past and back to the present again. She does this several times, what she is doing is having flashbacks of when her daughter Emily, was a child. The opposition here is the present vs. the past. The activities the mother was engaged in, whether it was ironing a dress or taking care of her son Ronnie seemed to trigger these flashbacks. The flashbacks were related to Emily whatever the mother is doing somehow she flashes back to a time in Emily's life. she brought up her child. The ironing is symbolic for Emily's past her mother is literally ironing out the wrinkles of the past. Looking
Some common words found in the essay are:
Wen Emily, Remember Emily's, Emily Emily, Stand Ironing, emily's mother, loving parent, Approaches Paper, emily's life, daughter emily, emily appetite, left home, throughout story, emily sick, parent emily's mother, sent convalescent home, healthy emily vs, emily's past, chicken pox, sick chicken pox, loving parent vs,
Approximate Word count = 1146
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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