¶ … Stand Here Ironing, by Tillie Olson [...] how it deals with the subject of women, especially poor women. Societies have always oppressed their weakest members, and women have always been perceived as the "weaker" sex. Olsen illustrates the suffering of poor women as they attempt to live a decent live and raise their children with dignity while making sure they can better themselves and live a more rewarding life.
STAND HERE IRONING
Tillie Olsen, who wrote this story in 1961, knew what poor people faced. She was born in Nebraska in 1913, and her parents were Jewish immigrants. Her father became a vocal member of the Socialist Party, and his daughter picked up his blue-collar ideas. When she was young, she worked as a waitress, in factories, and in warehouses, so she fully understood what she wrote about, and the difficulties poor women faced in society. She tried to organize factory workers, and belonged to the Communist Party. "As a union worker she took part in the San Francisco Warehouse Strike of 1934 and spent more time in jail. In 1936 she married Jack Olsen, a printer. To help support their three daughters Olsen worked as, among other things, a waitress, laundress, and secretary" (Bloom 53).
Women have continually been oppressed in society, and this oppression is often bemoaned in literature, in drama, and in poetry. It is not a new or unique theme. Olsen can write about female oppression so effectively because she has experienced it first-hand, and "I Stand Here Ironing" is probably one of her best and most studied pieces that show what poor women face in the ghettos of America. Her story specifically demonstrates how women had to live during the Great Depression in the 1930s, when jobs were scarce. Not only were the women affected, their children were affected, too. Some of them never had a chance to really enjoy their childhood. Emily, the daughter in the story, must care for the other children in the family, and the stress of it wears on her, just as it weighs on her mother. Her mother remembers,
She was a miracle to me, but when she was eight months old I had to leave her daytimes...
Toni Cade Bambara, The Lesson Toni Cade Bambara's The Lesson was a story told through the thoughts and wisdom of Sylvia, a young girl who lives in a lower class city. Throughout the story, Bambara used a combination of symbolism and reality techniques. While a young girl tells the story, he demonstrates how smart Sylvia is in the world she lives in - having to tell strong languages she has come
Bambara, 1981) the author Toni Cade Bambara presents, at the superficial level, from a child's perspective, a visit to the F.A. O Schwarz Toy Emporium in Manhattan, of the protagonist and her friends led by the resident gadfly, busboy and self-appointed educator Miss Moore. The protagonist Sylvia, and her comrades -- Sugar, Junior, Rosie Giraffe, Mercedes, Flyboy, Big Butt, Q.T. And Junebug are African-American children growing up in the
Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara tells the story of a college-educated woman who moves to the African-American neighborhood of the unnamed story-teller, her friend Sugar, and her friends and cousins. To the children it seems that Miss Moore puts on air, speaking "proper" English, always dressed as if she were going to church, and taking the children on educational field trips. The children resent it; school is out, and
Toni Cade Bambara's short story "The Lesson," a newcomer to the neighborhood named Miss Moore, a woman obviously better off than the rest of the families in the neighborhood, takes children on a field trip into midtown Manhattan, where they visit FAO Schwarz and gradually realize that some people have a great deal more money than they do. Miss Moore is trying to teach the children to make sure
Kate Chopin, author of "The Story of an Hour" Kate Chopin was born Kate O'Flaherty in 1850, in St. Louis, Missouri (Clarke 1). Chopin's mother was of French extraction and the young Kate grew up in a bilingual household. Chopin's household was also bicultural, encompassing both the cultures of north and south: both supporters of slavery and anti-slavery advocates lived in Missouri; Chopin's family kept slaves and her half-brother fought on
For example, Sylvia takes offense when Miss Moore says they live in the slums. Bambara writes, "And then she gets to the part about we all poor and live in the slums which I don't feature. And I'm ready to speak on that, but she steps out in the street and hails two cabs just like that" (Bambara). Sylvia and her friends are not afraid to talk back to
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