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I Stand Here Ironing By Tillie Olsen

192 Words1 Pages
During the 1930 era, the Great Depression in America caused an economic downturn that affected many families. The unexpected tragedy made it difficult for parents to provide for their children. Many parents dream of giving their kids what they never had growing up became unrealistic. The financial hardships left parents feeling guilty because they failed themselves and their children. In the short story, “ I Stand Here Ironing” Tillie Olsen portrays the life and regret of a single young mother struggling to raise her first born, Emily, during the Great Depression. The single mother takes full responsibility of what her daughter lacks as a young girl emotionally, mentally, and physically. Becoming a mother at the age of nineteen years old and
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The image that Dorothea Lange captured of a fearful and desperate weather-beaten woman, with her three children, has become the ideal representation of the desperation and hardships that many families have gone through during the Great Depression in America. In the article “ The Harvest Gypsies”, John Steinbeck portrays the desperation when he declares “ The father and mother now feel that paralyzed with numbness with which the mind protects itself against too much sorrow and too much pain” (Steinbeck n. pag.).When no food could be grown and no money could be made, entire families packed up everything they had and began the journey to California. Without even looking back at the past, many families left their hometown farms , only to end

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Raising children is not easy and making sure that every child has exactly what they need to be happy and healthy can be a challenge. Living as a child of a single mother is not easy either. The narrator and Emily in Tillie Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing” are both flawed. Each has lived a life of hardships and fought through feelings of inadequacy. Each is working towards making a better life for themselves.

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The people of times were at a standstill as there wasn’t anything that can cause people to grow and nothing out there to strive for. The people suffering from the Great Depression were too poor to buy goods and no goods to buy. In addition, people couldn’t have dreams or as stated in the novel nothing “outside the boundaries of Maycomb County” as they were barely trying to live in the present with the crippling economy. Families like the Cunninghams represented the entire farmer population affected by the crash as they suffered severely and their way of life showed the impact. These impacts were evident by the condition of the Walter Cunningham Jr. such as the “absence of shoes ”(pg) that led to hookworms from exposure to the ground.

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Finally, having their whole childhood revolved around work, the kids never got to enjoy the time they had as kids. Ann Marie, a young girl who worked on her family farm during the Great Depression, suggests “Maybe next year we won’t have to work so hard” (Ruth 7-8). These children suffered for 11 years working as hard as they could just so that they could have food on the table, and many times it was not enough. They matured much too quickly, which eventually led to many problems in their futures, such as addictions to drugs or alcohol. In the book Children of the Great Depression by Russell Freedman, a nine-year-old wrote to First Lady Elenor Roosevelt “I’m always sorry because I’m still very young and can’t help out” (Freedman 4).

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When the Great Depression hit and the economy crashed in 1929, Louise’s father lost everything, including the ink manufacturing company. This meant that Christian was unemployed and out of work, and he had no idea what to do. His father-in-law went through the Depression until 1933, when he blew his brains out because it was all just too much for him. Without having a job, Christian had plenty of time to be with Louise but did not really use it. He and Louise had different interest because Christian never did anything but football and work so he never gained any interests or hobbies.

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