I stand here ironing questions. i stand here ironing questions (1).docx 2022-10-23
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"I Stand Here Ironing" is a short story by Tillie Olsen that was first published in 1956. It tells the story of a mother reflecting on her daughter's upbringing and her own difficult life as a single parent. The story is told from the mother's perspective and is structured as a monologue in which she addresses an unseen listener, who is likely a social worker or other authority figure.
The story raises a number of poignant and thought-provoking questions about parenting, motherhood, and the role of society in shaping the lives of individuals. Here are some key questions that the story raises:
What are the challenges that the mother faces as a single parent?
The mother in "I Stand Here Ironing" has a difficult life as a single parent. She is struggling to make ends meet and is unable to give her daughter the care and attention that she needs. She is also dealing with her own emotional struggles and feelings of inadequacy as a mother.
How does the mother's past shape the way she raises her daughter?
The mother in the story has had a difficult and traumatic past, including an unhappy marriage, a series of miscarriages, and a mental breakdown. These experiences have a significant impact on the way she raises her daughter. She is anxious, overprotective, and often unable to meet her daughter's needs.
What is the role of society in shaping the lives of individuals?
The mother in the story is constantly being judged by society for her choices and her parenting skills. She feels pressure to conform to societal expectations and to do what is "best" for her daughter, even if it means sacrificing her own needs and desires. The story suggests that society plays a significant role in shaping the lives of individuals, particularly for those who are marginalized or disadvantaged.
How does the mother's relationship with her daughter change over time?
The mother's relationship with her daughter is complex and evolves over the course of the story. In the beginning, the mother is anxious and overprotective, but as her daughter grows older, she becomes more independent and confident. The mother comes to realize that she needs to let go of her daughter and give her the freedom to make her own choices.
What does the story reveal about the experience of motherhood?
"I Stand Here Ironing" offers a poignant and thought-provoking portrayal of the complexities and challenges of motherhood. It highlights the difficulties that many mothers face, particularly those who are struggling to provide for their children on their own. The story also shows the deep love and devotion that mothers have for their children and the sacrifices they are willing to make for their well-being.
(PDF) Study Questions on Tillie Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing" (1953)
Time, then, is both restrictive and generative, and it may lead Emily out of the constraints of poverty even as it has drawn her into them in the past. Since women of this time had to deal with the inequality in the male-dominated society, the narrator struggled to provide for her daughter and fulfill her personal ambitions. During the 20 th century, women generally demonstrated powerless and emotional roles; meanwhile, men tended to display more powerful and dominant roles. Emily lived there for eight months, during which time she stopped eating and became frailer. How do Emily's responsibilities impact her education? In total 57 members of these families were interviewed in depth, most more than once. Olsen grew up in relative poverty and, although she was a voracious reader, her formal education ended when she left high school at age 16. Growing Susan is more recognized as cute and warm while Emily dark and cold.
These women couldn't be more different from the narrator, who has struggled for her entire life to make ends meet. Emily's balcony in particular represents the emotional distance between the narrator and her daughter. How might a young child perceive being sent away soon after the birth of a sibling? The mother's emotional neglect of Emily has permanently "contaminated" her as well, infusing her with a bleakness that the narrator fears will never disappear. Upon joining the Young Communist League in 1930, Olsen became deeply involved in communist activism and was noted throughout her life for her wide-ranging advocacy on behalf of women and the working class. Using William Galston's conditions for securing the right to exit set out in his 2002 book Liberal Pluralism and evidence from Anabaptist apostates, McAvoy shows that insular groups cannot satisfy these conditions. What is the relationship between comedy and tragedy? How can present-day readers benefit from studying them? Why is it important for every member of the family to contribute? Their roles were to stay at home and take care of their families by completing all the housework.
What is the line between a fair contribution to the home and an excessive workload for a teenager? What are your talents? They were powerless in a male-dominated society, in. This made it extremely difficult for them to accomplish their goals and fulfill social expectations of them. Emily runs happily up the stairs and enters the room where the narrator is ironing. The 2006 war in Lebanon that erupted between Hezbollah and Israel marked the largest evacuation of Americans abroad since World War II. The narrator's final wish is that Emily will have a strong sense of self-worth and believe that she is more than the dress that is "helpless before the iron.
What kind of issues perhaps drove the author to write this story? What are your biggest regrets? Olsen published political poems and articles as a young woman, but her writing career slowed for many years due to the pressures of raising four daughters and earning a living. Therefore, it is extremely difficult for her to fit her role in the patriarchal society, especially in the depression era. This story explores the impact poverty has on individuals and family. Samantha Reyes WRT102 Nahal Rodieck I Stand Here Ironing Discussion Questions by Tillie Olsen Discussion Questions about Content: 1. Finally, this story can be seen as a reaction to the social mores of 1950s America, in which polished, perfect versions of domestic life were idealized. She still feels guilty about her failures, but she seems also to have reached an understanding that there is no correct interpretation of the facts, no way to know the true impact of all of her choices.
How do you cope with your regrets? The story is about mother recalling the facts of her daughter Emily's life. In this essay, Paula McAvoy addresses the problem caused by the liberal state's necessary tolerance of insular fundamentalist groups and the concern that children raised in such groups do not have a fair opportunity to evaluate their inherited beliefs. During this time, being a young, single mother was still unconventional in society. The repetitive motion of the iron moving back and forth across the surface of the ironing board mimics the narrator's thought processes as she moves back and forth over her life as a mother, attempting to identify the source of Emily's current difficulties. It scared me what it talked. The narrator refers to the "invisible wall" that divides them, both then and now. A poor single mother feels guilty and distressed because in order to support her family she has to leave her children in inadequate care.
The evacuation stories in this article confirm and illuminate the complexity of ethnic citizenship and gendered agency. This article captures the experiences of Lebanese-American women and investigates how gender identity was expressed during these evacuations. Physical distance and time while Emily is away from the family and solidify the mother's new family as her focus further other Emily. What is the nature of the interaction among writer, reader, and text? The story does not have a high peak. Describe an outlet that helps you escape from the stressful parts of your life. I Stand Here Ironing What are the things that float through your head when you're busy with mindless tasks? Written in first person by the mother.
Although Emily's welfare is the central concern of the story, the narrator is more actively engaged in unwrinkling her daughter's dress than in the life of the young woman who will wear it. Helps give insight into an oppressed women who normally never get her voice heard. First person POV help reader connect to the mother emotionally by understanding why she is thinking so much about her role as a mother. My objective in studying these manuscripts has been to examine the ways in which these writings documented the experiences of and functioned as forms of autobiography for their writers, who were not well-known writers nor significant historical figures but ordinary women whose daily lives passed unnoticed and whose diaries now stand, for the most part, as the only extant records of their lives. The narrator wants to hug Emily but this final separation makes it too late to repair her relationship with Emily. Why is it ironic that Emily would have this talent? What are the factors that determine a person's personality and coping skills? During her stay there, obedience overtakes self-expression completely, for both the narrator and Emily, as even simple acts of autonomy like making friends and keeping tokens of affection are stripped away. Societal norms have instilled in her mind the idea that women are powerless and fragile.
How does the narrator react to Emily's hobby? Here, Emily is explicitly drawn into the domestic labors that have so deeply impacted the narrator throughout the story. What do you think is the root cause of her problems? Some embraced dependency upon masculinist exercises of power while others claimed agency as they determined their own fate and carried out their own evacuation without waiting to be rescued by the state or male kin members. Women had to strive to fit their socially constructed role, whereas men were largely absent and irrational. What is your impression of the caller? Cheerful and talkative, she jokes about the fact that her mother is always ironing. It begins with the narrator talking to possibly a school teacher, counsellor or therapist regarding Emily's "problems".
Emily became sick with measles then and prone to nightmares but, with a new baby, the narrator was too exhausted to comfort Emily when she woke in the night. Often, these requests are treated as straightforward dilemmas — either the state accommodates the group at the expense of the child's future interest in autonomy, or the state must use its power to coerce the group into compliance. Why do you think the narrator chose this school? What advice would you offer the narrator? A social welfare agency has stepped in to provide Emily with the care and attention she does not receive at home—Emily can recover only if she is looked after by strangers in an unfamiliar place. My article is based on my study, over the past four years, of scores of unpublished diary manuscripts housed in state, county, and local historical society archives in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. When Emily finally returned home, she would not accept physical affection. Despite her relatively small body of published work, by the time of her death in 2007, Olsen was regarded as an instrumental figure in the evolution of feminist literature and activism.
