Stand Here Ironing- “I think I saw a movie like this on Lifetime!!!

I truly enjoyed the short story by Tillie Olsen, I Stand Here Ironing. It takes reading over a few times before the reader can truly appreciate the message Olsen was trying to get across. This piece seems like it could have taken place in present day just as well as back in the 50s when it was written.

The theme of this story sounds very common of the society we live in today. Woman gives up her dreams of creating a successful life for herself when she marries at a young age and becomes a mother. When her husband leaves her she has trouble supporting the child and they fall on hard times. Eventually the woman remarries and creates a new family with the second husband. Thus leaving the first daughter to feel left out and alienated. (I can see the Lifetime movie now.)

The narrator of this story admits that there is no hope for her life to gain any success; she is stuck where she is. But she believes her daughter is lucky enough to have a talent to entertain in order to take her somewhere. The mother realizes that she is as helpless as the dress she is ironing. She is stuck in that kitchen and there is no chance of that ever changing. But she believes there is more out there for her daughter. She wants her daughter to experience the life she never had the chance to live.