Name______

TILLIE OLSEN

“I STAND HERE IRONING”

1. PLOT: Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing” is an example of theSIMPLE PLOT. As defined by Aristotle in his Poetics, the Simple Plot presents a series of events or problems basically centered around one character. There is no one Inciting Moment or presentation at the problem of the story, which is resolved at the Climax or the solution to the problem of the story, with this solution bringing Recognition and Reversal. Instead the Simple Plot follows one character through a series of problems.

Tell what Emily’s mother (whose name is never given) says happened to Emily during the following times of her life:

2. Baby: Emily is a beautiful baby, but her father deserts Emily’s mother when the baby is about ______months old. With her husband gone, Emily’s mother has to take a ______. Until she gets on her feet, she sends the baby Emily to her husband’s ______.

This separation is supposed to last just for a short time; however, the baby winds up being away from her mother for over a ______. Significantly, this period is that very crucial time whena mother and a baby begin to bond. Thus, very early the motherand her daughter are ______.

Also, during this time thebaby gets ______, the first of several illnesses Emily will have.

3. 2-6 years-old: Emily is returned to her ______, but the latter says she no longer sees the baby as beautiful. The baby now looks“like her ______”, a painful reminder of the husband who had deserted her.

Emily is put in a ______school so her mother can work. At around four, Emily is sent away again. When she returns, she learns her mother has ______. Emily is terrified that she has lost her ______love, especially when her half-sister ______is born—Emily is five.

During Susan’s birth, Emily has ______. The illness is followed by ______problems.

4. 7 years-old: Because of her illness, Emily is sent to a ______home in the country. Once again mother and daughter are ______.

When Emily isreturned to her mother, the child is withdrawn and seems no longer concerned with whether her mother ______her or not.

5. 8-12 years-old: During these years, Emily’s appearance is dark-haired and ______, “when every little girl was supposed to look . . . a ______replica of Shirley Temple”. Shirley Temple was the most famous child actress in American movies in the 1930s.

Furthermore, Emily is a “slow ______” in school. She has ______(illness).In addition, she shows jealousy toward ______, who is open with everyone, while Emily is ______and withdrawn.

6. 13-16 years-old: Emily’s early and middle teenscoincide with World War ____. Her stepfather ______leaves to fight in the war.

Emily’s mother must get a ______, so Emily hasto become “mother” and “______”of the four younger children, including Susan. Because of these new responsibilities, Emily’s ______begins to suffer. However, perhaps because Emily is doing the domestic things at which her mother has always excelled—being a housekeeper—a closeness between ______and ______finally begins to develop.

7. 17-19 years-old : The war is over,and with Bill’s return, Emily’s mother no longer has to hold a ______. She resumes doing the household management.

Emily is now in high school and is still not good at her academic studies.

Taking up a casual suggestion by her mother, Emily manifests a talent as a ______, which soon wins her acclaim throughout her city.

This development explains why the story begins with a request from a high school guidance counselor for Emily’s motherto comein to talk with her about Emily. The counselor wants totry to find out why Emily is such a ______academic student, but has a genius for acting or entertaining.

Note: Robert Coles in his essay “Tillie Olsen: The Iron and the Riddle” says that the guidance counselor or school psychologist is presented as “interfering, gratuitous, self-serving, and wrong-headed” .

The story explains why the mother is refusing to visit the ______: The mother says that it is impossible to know what makes someone the way that person is: “I will never ______it all” ; that is, she will never understand everything that has gone into making Emily what she is.

She implies that the counselor’s intervention might just ______up Emily’s life even more than her daughter’s poor academic grades.

Also Emily’s mother may be suspicious of the counselor, apublic worker; it was on the advice of another public (social) worker that Emily’s mother let Emily be sent to a ______home when Emily was seven, thus separating mother and daughter .

In saying, “Let ______” , the mother is affirming that Emily has earned the right (through her trials) to have the freedom to develop in her own way.

8. How does the last sentence of the story tie the mother’s anddaughter’s lives together?

Emily’s mother concludes thatthe only help she can give the counselor is for her or him to know Emily is “more than this dress on the ______, helpless before the iron” .

This statement implies the mother feels that during her ownlife she herself had been “helpless” and overwhelmed by conditions over which she had little ______. She wants something better for her ______.

9. Who is the PROTAGONIST? Explain. ______. As a child, she wants her mother to ______her, but their frequent ______, Emily’s illnesses, her mother’s ______, and the other children who come out of the second ______, particularly ______, put the idea in Emily’s mind through much of her childhood that her mother does not ______her.

10. Who is the ANTAGONIST? Explain. ______mother. In order to live her own life (work, remarriage, other children, and so forth), she knows she has not given Emily all the ______and attention Emily wanted and needed.

11. Examine the SETTING (places and time span) of the story.

The exact setting is never mentioned, but it is probably in a rural area of Middle America. The story is spoken by the mother while she is bent over an ______,which thus becomes the focus of the setting of the story.

The time span is specified: From the 1930s (the depression) to the 1940s (World War II) until just after the war, the start of the Atomic Bomb era.

12. What is the THEME of the story? The nineteen-year relationship between a ______and her ______; specifically the guilt a mother feels that she has not done ______to help her daughter prosper, but her confidence that she has done enough so that her daughter can ______and persevere.

13. What are two major CONFLICTS in the story? Explain.

(1) Protagonist vs. Antagonist (______vs. Mother)

(2) Protagonist vs. Herself (Emily’s mind is divided between whether or not her mother truly ______her.

14. What POINT OF VIEW is used in the story? First person (“I”), main character: Emily’s mother (the ______) tells the story. Robert Coles in his essay, “Tillie Olsen: The Iron and the Riddle”, calls the story an “interior monologue”, a narrative technique which suggests a character’s stream of consciousness or the character’s thoughts.

15. Of what is the “ironing” a SYMBOL? On one symbolic level, the iron is the mother and the ______she is ironing is her ______. The story symbolically suggests the difficulty (and foolishness) of any mother believing that she can ______out all the wrinkles in her daughter’s life; this is, that a mother can ever totally determine what her daughter will become.

On a second symbolic level, the iron represents social issues (depression, war, social interference, etc.) which make one feel “______before the ______”.

ANSWER KEY

2. eight; job; parents; year; separated; chicken pox.

3. mother; father; nursery; remarried; mother’s; Susan; measles; breathing.

4. convalescent; separated; loves.

5. thin; chubby; blonde; learner; asthma; Susan; shy.

6. II; Bill; job; housekeeper; schoolwork; mother; daughter.

7. job; comedian; poor; counselor; total; mess; convalescent; her be.

8. ironing board; control; daughter.

9. Emily; love; separations; remarriage; marriage; Susan; love.

10. Emily’s; love.

11. ironing board.

12. mother; daughter; enough; survive.

13. (1) Daughter; (2) loves.

14. antagonist.

15. dress; daughter; iron; hopeless; iron.