Jamie VolletJayla Howell

Claire Heuckeroth

“I Stand Here Ironing” Tillie Olsen

Although the mother physically cared for her daughter, she was unable to care for her emotionally, causing a sense of guilt as the daughter struggled with the consequences.

DictionFragmentsContrastIronyToneMetaphor

Line 37: “She would lie on the floor in her blue overalls patting the surface so hard in ecstasy her hands and feet would blur.”

Line 18: “She was a beautiful baby.” Line 27: “I nursed her” & Line 50 “when she saw me she

would break into a clogged weeping that could not be comforted, a weeping I can hear yet.”

Shift from “She was a miracle to me” (Line 39) to “I had to leave her” (Line 40).

Fragments show mother’s lack of complexity. Mother is physically present, but emotionally not developed.

Line 61: “She had said it before. She believes it.”

Line 79: “There were years she did not want me to touch her.” Irony

Line 45 -“I was nineteen” Line 73 - “She was a child of anxious, not

proud, love.” Line 83 -“She is a child of her age, of

depression, of war, of fear.”

Line 45: “I was nineteen. It was the pre-relief, pre-WPA world of the depression.”

Line 10: “She had lived for nineteen years.” Line 7: “’Who needs help.’ Even if I came,

what good would it do?”

Line 35: “She was a beautiful…” shows happiness, then shifts to Line 41: “I had to leave her…” which is cold, mad, regretful, pitiful.

Lines 47-50 “I got out off the street car, running up the stairs…” Helplessness

Line 61-64: “but because I have been dredging the past, and all that compounds a human being is so heavy and meaningful in me, I cannot endure it tonight.” Tiredness

All of these tone shifts require emotion. This shows that while mother is “detached” emotionally, she ultimately can’t escape emotion.

Line 1- “I stand here ironing” Line 88 -“Only help her to know– that she is

more than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron.”

Line 84 - “Let her be. So all that is in her will not bloom.”

Line 25: “But the seeing eyes were few or nonexistent. Including mine.”

Line 75: “I was a young mother, a distracted mother.”

Line 80: “My wisdom came too late.”

Many politicians show emotion and tell relatable and heartfelt stories to connect and win over their audience.

Because of their emotion, they succeed. Gabrielle Giffords