TELL ME A RIDDLE, REQUA I, AND OTHER

WORKSWritten by Tillie Olsen

INTRODUCTION/TELL ME A RIDDLEIntroductiono Autobiographyo Short Fiction written in the 1930’so Transitions from a young activists to a

mature fiction writero Looks back in life to see how she has been

shapedo “She was fierce in her insistence that

people working together for social justice would make this world possible.” (pg xix)

o This text, “may be demanding to read, requiring readers to engage fully to work, to participate in making the text’s meaning”

Tell Me A Riddleo Made up of short stories in

forms of: Monologues, anthologized widely, films, staged productions, and operas

o Links characters from different generations

o Themes are: “Celebrate the endurance of human love and the passion…” (xiii), regardless of the poverty and racism going on at that time

I STAND HERE IRONING/HEY SAILOR, WHAT SHIP?“I Stand Here Ironing”o About a mother-daughter relationshipo Mom’s influence daughterso There was economic poverty in the U.S.o Mother wishes that her daughter, Emily,

changes her perspective of value when she grows up

o “Only help her to know –help make it so there is cause for her to know-that she is more than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron.” (xiv)

“Hey Sailor, What Ship?”o Olsen moves in and our of

Whitney’s (merchant marine) consciousness

o Whitney’s family members, Helen and Lennie become his refuge when he comes home between ship-outs.

o One day Whitney came home drunk and ill

o This projects how bad working conditions were

OH YES/MIDDLE OF TELL ME A RIDDLE“Oh Yes”o Helen’s daughter, who is

white, is forced to separate from her friend, who is black.

o During racial segregation

Middle of Tell Me A RiddleoPassions and conflicts arise in David’s and Eva’s relationshipoThey got married during a political upheaval oTheir conflicts were tearing their relationship apartoShe was left feeling alone and David is left wanting companionship and sociability

STORIES FOCUS ON…/REQUA IStories Focus On:o complexity of family and marriageo marginalized by womeno immigration o aging passion for justiceo Olsen writes in such a way that any reader would be able to understand the characters she projects.o“These stories, and the passion, precision, and respect with which Olsen has written them, are a form of justice the lives of these characters insists we must call into living.”

Requa Io“Olsen…insists…that brokenness is the condition that elicits human bondedness” (xvii)oStevie (13 year old boy)oHis mom passed away, which caused him to move away from San FranciscooUncle, Wes, took care of him in Northern CAoStory focuses on Wes’s commitment to take care of StevieoStevie was completely withdrawn from human interaction and had a sense of physical disorientation, because of his loss.o“As he works, Stevie’s own brokenness is inseparable from that of the junk, and along with the junk it is sorted though to see what is salvageable, what can be repurposed and be put to use.” (xviii)

SHORT NONFICTION FROM AND ABOUT

THE 1930SA Vision of Fear and HopeThe StrikeThousand-Dollar VagrantI Want You Women Up North To Know

A VISION OF FEAR AND HOPEo “You mean you still have hope?” (pg. 133)o Olsen reminisces about her childhood growing up during the

Great Depressiono Millions of Americans were out of work, those in power were

violent, and people were starvingo The American people were suffering, and even those with jobs

were struggling (“The Beedo System”) o Olsen talks about the two instances in which she was arrested

due to a corrupted/paranoid government during the 1930s o In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected and massive

changes were being made: there were more job opportunities, people were being fed, and human rights were emphasized

o “Today, the vision of full human hood is battered, scorned, deemed ‘unrealistic.’” (pg. 138)

o Despite the hopelessness during The Great Depression, it was the catalyst that lead to “human flowering, and when the country was transformed by the hopes, dreams, actions of numerous nameless human beings hungry for more than food.” (pg. 138)

THE STRIKEo Olsen recalls the 1943 West Coast Waterfront

Strike in San Francisco while in a battlefieldo Policemen beat and even killed some protestors

during the strike o Howard Sperry, an exserviceman, and Nick

Bordoise, a communist party member, were shot and killed by policemen during the strike

o Thousands watched the funeral procession, “fists clenched till knuckles were white, and people standing staring, saying nothing, letting it clamp into their hearts, hurt them so the scar would be there forever—a swelling that would never let them lull.” (pg. 146)

o The protestors became angrier after the death of two innocent protestor and sparked a greater will to fight the system inside of them

THOUSAND DOLLAR VAGRANTo Tillie Olsen explicates on the time she was arrested

during the strike in 1934o Olsen is with three other men, when police men

enter their home due to suspicions about the communist party

o The policemen are described as animals: beastly, cruel, and violent

o The policemen tear the house apart and interrogate them before arresting them and sending them to jail

o The mere fact that Olsen was with communists during the arrival of the policemen was enough to place on her a $1000 bail

o “ ‘Unfortunately Communism is no crime—as yet, though every other type of insanity allows us to place the culprit behind the bars. Communism is the effusion of halfwits.” (pg. 154)

I WANT YOU WOMEN UP NORTH TO KNOWo Based on a letter by Felipe Ibarro in New

Masses, January 9th, 1934o Asks the women in the North to reconsider

the clothing they purchase and the material goods they value

o Describes the ghastly work environment of Maria, Catalina, and Ambrosa

o The poem attempts to inform the women up North of the horrifying work conditions of those who make their material goods that they take for granted

o Ends the poem saying that this type of work setting will can not and will not last forever