I Stand Here Ironing

In “I Stand Here Ironing”, the narrator feels very guilty for the way her eldest daughter Emily was raised. Overall the narrator loves Emily in her own way and was doing what she thought was right, or what she simply had to do. “I was nineteen. It was the pre-relief, pre-WPA world of the depression.” (284) That would have been an extremely difficult time to be a single mother. Jobs were limited to females and money was tight even for people in upper class America. The narrator was perfectly just in “[having] to leave her daytimes with the woman downstairs” (284). I also don’t blame her for having to send Emily to her father’s family, but in other ways the narrator has every right to feel guilty. “With all the fierce rigidity of first motherhood” (283) she denied Emily milk when she was a hungry infant. She never rationed milk for the rest of her children. She forced goodness upon Emily rather than letting her throw tantrums like the normal four-year-old. The narrator never even smiled at Emily. That is a very scarring thing to a child. When Emily was sick and had nightmares the narrator didn’t go to her room and comfort Emily instead she yelled out “now go to sleep, Emily, there’s nothing to hurt you”. It is true that a child needs to learn to be independent and not afraid, but I think that underneath the fear Emily just wanted her mother to be with her. It was fortunate for the narrator that Emily had talent or else she would be feeling a lot more guilty than she does in the story.