Hannah Tool, Fall 2009
Depression era America left no family unscathed. The harsh economic conditions coupled with rigid social norms meant that both fathers and mothers felt a separate yet equally compelling desire to provide for their families like never before. Traditional gender roles dictate a father to provide the financial support for the family and a mother to keep the emotional needs of her husband and children satiated. Published in 1961, Tillie Olsen’s short story “I Stand Here Ironing” tells the story of a single mother raising five children in 1930’s America. Her eldest, Emily, is the focal point of the story because she, at age nineteen, is anti-social and depressed. The story is a narrative from a mother’s point of view. Even though the faults of Emily’s personality could arguably be traced back to the failings of society as a whole, it was imposed upon women like Emily’s mother that, even in a time of socioeconomic distress and political turmoil, the failings of their children were entirely their responsibility.
The story opens with Emily’s mother responding, internally, to some authority figure in Emily’s life, presumably a guidance counselor, who wishes to speak with Emily’s mother about her daughter’s issues with school. It is assumed by the guidance counselor that Emily’s mother will have some kind of instinct as to what Emily thinks and feels because, if she were a “good” mother (that is, if she were to conform to the strict guidelines relevant to her role as a mother in the 1930s) she would have a prepared and insightful response to Emily’s behavior. Her mother’s internal monologue wonders about “…all this life that has happened outside of me, beyond me” (Olsen 402) and therefore there is no way a reasonable person could assume her to still have the emotional connection to her daughter that she had in the first months of Emily’s life.
Emily’s mother was not the only parental figure to fail her in her life. In fact every adult who was assigned, either by nature or society, to provide nurture to Emily was in some way a failure. When Emily was only eight months old, her mother had no choice but to leave her with the woman who lived downstairs from the family, “…to whom [Emily] was no miracle at all,” so that she could work (Olsen 403). Emily stayed with her father’s family when her mother was unable, even with the assistance of a babysitter, to provide for her. Emily’s father had left before Emily was born, leaving a note that said he, “could no longer endure sharing want with us” (Olsen 403). His abandonment created the economic situation in Emily’s life which led her mother to send her away to so many different care takers.
After the birth of her second child, Emily’s mother was persuaded by her doctors to send Emily to a convalescent school in order to better care for her newborn. The school treated the children like cattle, discouraging any affection either between classmates or from parents. When the parents were allowed to visit and see their children, they were presented to them, “[h]igh up on the balconies of each cottage… the girls in their red bows and white dresses, the boys in white suits and giant red ties. The parents stand below and shriek up to be heard and the children shriek down to be heard, and between them the invisible wall, ‘Not To Be Contaminated by Parental Germs or Physical Affection’” (Olsen 406). The severance of the parent/child relationship, exaggerated here by the dramatic physical distance, reinforces to the children that they are not “special” outside of the group. It also reminds parents that they are no longer a productive part of their child’s life and have, therefore, failed as parents.
Emily’s mother describes the places where she was forced to bring Emily as “parking places for children” (Olsen 403). As a child, Emily begged her mother not to bring her to school. Her mother frequently gave in, keeping Emily home alone sometimes just so she could have all of her children together. In doing so, her mother removed Emily from the group life which so damaged her later in her life. Again, her mother is easy to blame for what is on a more complex level the failure of society. The alienation of family life and emphasis instead on group mentality which was enforced in depression-era America put a stigma on Emily for desiring the company of her family instead of the company of her peers.
In her article on Olsen’s short story, Joanne Frye discusses the fact that “a human being cannot rely on the perpetual presence of external seeing eyes to validate her own authenticity as a separate self” (Frye 289). Both Emily and her mother are victims of this fallacy. Women, as the “weaker sex” are constantly encouraged to seek approval from others, primarily men, in order to feel that they are worth something. Working class women like Emily’s mother walk an exceptionally thin line when attempting to conform to societal norms of good motherhood while earning enough money to support her children. If she becomes too dependent on outside care for her children, she is a bad mother. If she tries to excel at her job and earn more income, she will be considered opportunistic—while a man, even if supporting a family (especially if supporting a family) who tries to get ahead at work will be called motivated, determined, and a “good” father.
Emily, who is “dark and thin and foreign-looking in a world where the prestige [goes] to blondness, she [is] slow where glibness [is] prized,” (Olsen, 410) was passed around from caretaker to caretaker throughout her childhood and taught, through this handing off, that she did not belong anywhere, nor was she worthy of affection. When Emily finally finds her place in society, it alienates her even farther. Because she is unable to connect with her peers on an emotional, physical or intellectual basis she instead turns to her own self for success. This kind of rugged individualism creates a larger rift between herself and her peers; while before she was invisible to everyone, once she discovers and reveals her talent for pantomime, “…suddenly she [is] Somebody, and as imprisoned in her difference as she had been in autonomy” (Olsen 409). Because the attention she receives is unflattering for a female of the 1930s, she has yet farther alienated herself.
Mothers were an easy scapegoat for the classist structure of socioeconomically dismal 1930’s America. The American Dream weighed heavily on the minds of working class mothers, whose traditional role was to graciously nurture their families. The false consciousness instilled upon mothers like Emily’s distracted from the truth of her situation; it was “…the pre-relief, pre-WPA world of the depression” (Olsen 403) and raising five children without a father present (Emily’s having left early in her life and her stepfather being away at war), Emily’s mother had no choice but to be absent from a great deal of her children’s lives in order to provide financial support for them. Ironing, though perhaps a menial and certainly a tedious task, was Emily’s mother’s one outlet of “good motherhood”—even though Emily teased her for the repetition of her work, it allowed her to contemplate her role while fulfilling it, simultaneously.
Held accountable for their children’s well being, as well as their mistakes and experiences, mothers bear more of a burden than any other figure in society. In times of economic stress, such as the American depression of the 1930s, mothers have an even more monumental weight on their shoulders. Mothers like Emily’s who lost all support from the father of their child had to balance the emotional needs of their children with the economic requirements of raising a family. Stigmas upon single mothers are unending; whether they provide adequately for their children or not, their very existence is considered unfitting for raising a family. Tillie Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing” poignantly conveys the complications of being a single mother with a troubled child in a time of socioeconomic stress… and how they must fight to be more than just a dress, helpless before the ironing board (Olsen 410).
Works Cited
Frye, Joanne S. “‘I Stand Here Ironing’: Motherhood as Experience and Metaphor.” The Critical Response to Tillie Olsen. 128-133. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1994. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 14 Dec. 2009.
Olsen, Tillie. “I Stand Here Ironing.” The Seagull Reader Stories: Second Edition. Ed. Joseph Kelley. New York: Norton, 2008. 401-410. Print