Literature: Character Development

Just finished rereading Tillie Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing” (Charters, The Story and Its Writer, p. 1165). The last time I read this was over a year ago and I was struck again in this reading with the poignant portrayal of a mother and her daughter, written in the POV of the mother. The story follows a time line very short in duration as a mother—while ironing—reflects upon the emotional problems of the eldest of her five children, Emily, brought to her attention now by a teacher’s request to consult. The narrative is composed of fragments of their lives as recalled by the mother and while it tells us much about their background and how they are led to be where they are for this short duration, it tells us so much more about the personality of the mother in a much more insightful manner. While she is trying to explain her upbringing of Emily and her awareness of potential effect, it is how she recalls and tells the story that gives us a deeper understanding of her. It seems as if in her attempts to understand and justify, we get the feeling that she doesn’t understand at all. While she is experiencing guilt and sadness, she still seems to miss the point that she perhaps didn’t do all she could have. For example, she rather distantly describes her attempt to help guide Emily into doing things in which she excels: “I think I said once: ‘Why don’t you do something like this in the school amateur show?’ One morning she phoned me at work, hardly understandable through the weeping: ‘Mother, I did it. I won, I won; they gave me first prize; they clapped and clapped and wouldn’t let me go.’ ” But the mother doesn’t mention a sense of pride, or why she hadn’t taken the time to be there herself to watch Emily. With encouragement and acclaim from others, performing could become a turning point and save Emily’s fragile ego, but as her mother explains to us, “but without money or knowing how, what does one do? We have left it all to her.” In a summation of Emily to date, the mother seems to understand how it all has affected her daughter, and her part in it, but decides, “Let her be. So all that is in her will not bloom—but in how many does it? There is still enough left to live by.” These words are more telling to me than the final lines which reflect the same weak attempt to proclaim her motherly love that threads through the narration.
This story was not required reading in either of my classes, but if you can find it, I’d suggest you check it out—it’s well worth the read.