Student Question
How do economic and social circumstances affect the mother's care for Emily in "I Stand Here Ironing"?
Quick answer:
The mother's ability to care for Emily is significantly impacted by her economic and social circumstances. Abandoned by her husband during the Great Depression, she faces the challenges of single motherhood without societal support or economic stability. This leads to feelings of isolation and guilt, as she must work hard to provide for Emily, creating emotional distance. Emily's talent goes unrecognized due to the mother's focus on survival, highlighting generational and social gaps.
The mother's circumstances affect her ability to care for Emily markedly. This arise through her context and the specific chain of events she suffers. As she notes, " ''Her father left me before she was a year old." The author Tillie Olson lived through the Great Depression, and this colors the story throughout. The mother is not a contemporary woman living in a society with an extensive social support network and the assumption of equal rights for women. She's raising her daughter alone, when it was assumed that she'd have help, and doing so at a time of great poverty. Her daughter had the talent and desire to perform, but the mother had to keep grinding away at hard work (like ironing) to support them, creating a distance.
What economic and social issues does Emily's mother face in "I Stand Here Ironing"?
I am trying to gather as many of these issues as I can out of the story. I am writing a short essay for my college English class. I am not sure if I am on the right path or not. So far I have gathered that the story took place around the Great Depression and that the mother is a part of the poor working class. I am lost on the direction that I should go on my paper. My thesis question is, "How do economic and social circumstances affect the ability to take care of Emily?"
At the time of the setting of "I Stand Here Ironing ," divorce was not common, nor was the abandonment of a...
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father from his family. So, when Emily's mother is separated from her husband she feels especially bereft and guilty. Without other single-mother families to whom Emily can identify, she feels isolated, abandoned.
In addition, the Depression-era generation never forgot what deprivation they experienced despite the comfortable economic times of the 1950, so there was a large "generation gap" between them and their children who knew little of such deprivation. As a consequence, Emily does not understand her mother's having to relinquish her to a home and the lack of time that her mother had for her.