I have Just finished the story “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen. This was a very interesting story about a mother’s relationship with her daughter.
I noticed a couple of things that were really interesting to me in this story. The quote “There is all that life that has happened outside of me, beyond me” from the mother on the first page struck me as important. It set up for the relationship between the two in farther into the story but it also was true of any parent’s relationship towards their child. While their child is growing up there is a ton of things that the parent is not a part of. It interested me that this was in this story as well.
The mother in this story lived a very struggled life with her first daughter. This relationship is the focal point for the story. The voice that she is speaking in this story is that of regret. She is flashing back on her life with her daughter and is talking about it with a tone of remorse and that she should have done many things different. I think this was an interesting voice for the mother to have. Her voice didn’t change much throughout the story either which was interesting as well. Despite all of these depressing things that have happened in her relationship with her daughter she still keeps going in the mentality that things might not ever get better. It was very heart wrenching to read it like that.
The fact that this story is told from the point of view of the mother instead of the daughter was also really interesting. I think that this was an interesting insight on how a mother goes through the relationship of mother and daughter. I ave never really read anything about this so it was a new point of view to read from for me. I think this gave me a better insight onto the reasons that mother’s do things for their daughters. Despite the daughter’s objections and arguments the mother always does what she thinks is best despite the total outcome.
This story was really interesting for me to read. I am not a girl and have not had that mother daughter relationship struggle that a lot of girls have so reading about what happens between a mother and a daughter was really interesting for me.
4 comments:
Hey John,
I agree with what you have to say. this story is interesting with the tone of voice that the mother had. I was shocked to hear this from her. In many stories that i have read the mother's tones of voice if we do see it from her point of veiw, is always loving and protective of their daughters. in this story it seemed like she was fed up with her daughter like many mothers are. i'm glad that someone wrote in this tone of voice and from the mothers point of view so that we may see the craziness in other people lives.
It seems that you were also looking mostly at the mother daughter relationship. Are father son relationships anything like mother daughter? It would seem to me that mother daughter would be more emotional and personal whereas father son would be more playing around and stuff. But of course i have no idea. THis has become my new favorite story, i really enjoyed hearing about a struggling mother and daughter relationship. We have read stories about brothers, about father daughter, about abuse. So none of those really went into my life, but this story i could really connect with.
John,
The relationship between the mother and daughter was so starined, that yes, it was heart wrneching. Although the mother had a tone of regret throughout the entire story, Emily never once blamed anything on her mother, she never complained to her or told her everything was her fault. Most teenage girls that have a strained relationship with their mothers blame everything that goes wrong on them. THat is what made this sotry different and interesting.
I agree that the tone in which the mother spoke was sad. It sounded dry, nonenthusiastic, like she could bear no more. But what if it was written from the daughter POV, she would've probably sounded bitter.
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