Friday, October 12, 2007

Ruth's October 17 Group Work

Put your answers here.

Posted by Brad at 10/12/2007 01:58:00 PM

3 comments:

Natalia said...

Questions about theme.
What is the subject of the story?
Does the author portray society or the social scheme as life enchanting or life destroying?
If society is flowed, how is it flowed?

The theme of the Tillie Olsen’s story, ”I Stand there Ironing”, is that the person’s way to success depends on the social environment. Even if the social environment is not life enchanting, it can be flawed by the special qualities of the person’s character.

The protagonist of the story, Emily, doesn’t grow up in the environment that Olson calls the “the soil of easy growth.” Olson describes Emily as “a child of depression, of war, of fear,” brought up by inexperienced, young and poor mother who was not able to care for her first child properly. This kind of upbringing, without love and affection in the early childhood, leads to many psychological conflicts that Emily endures. Physically weak, sensitive and talented child doesn’t fit easily the standards of the society where “the glibness was praised.” Emily’s fragile personality might be lost in this uneven struggle, but mother managed to notice the rare comedy talent in her daughter and encourage her to reveal it. Since that, some of Emily’s conflicts are resolved, and her talent starts blooming. Together with Emily’s mother, the reader believes that Emily’s talent is the strength that will help her to overcome the difficulties on the way to the success. She will not be helpless before the misfortunes as “this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron.”

223 words

October 15, 2007 at 10:12 PM
Ruth said...

Question about character:

Question 7: How do the characters relate to one another? What pleasures and conflicts do
their relationships with one another cause?

The relationship of these two main characters is between a mother and her daughter Emily. As a first child of a mother, Emily gives her mother much memorable pleasure.
She is “the first and only one” of five children that is “beautiful at birth.” Also, she is submissive. She has many reasons for not going to school such as “I feel sick,”
or “the teachers aren’t there today,” but “never a direct protest, never rebellion.” With
Emily’s growing up, her behaviours cause some conflicts with her mother’s expectation
about what she should be like. After Emily comes back from her father’s home, her mother finds her quick walking, her nervousness, her looking and her thin all like her father, and her mother feels “all the baby loveliness gone.” Moreover, after Emily comes
back from the convalescent home, her mother tries to hold and love her, “ her body would
stay stiff, and after a while she’d push away.” From the story, both pleasures and conflicts show us the desire of a mother who wants to love and understand her daughter.
-179 words

October 17, 2007 at 12:18 AM
max said...

Question for theme:
Do characters have control over their lives?

In “ I Stand Here Ironing”, Tillie Olsen describes a “distracted mother”, when she was 19, she had her first daughter Emily, but the baby’s father “ could no longer endure” and left them. She loves her daughter, and she thinks the daughter is “a miracle”. However, she leaves her daughter because of work. “ Too late for Emily”, she often sighs, and she regrets that she can not do more for her daughter. Actually, she doesn’t improve any more. She can not control her life and change her fate. With five children, the depressed woman who lives in the bottom of the society has her daughter in her heart, but she is helpless to do more for her daughter.
-120 words

October 17, 2007 at 2:10 AM

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