The unfortunate circumstances that Emily was born into seem to contribute largely to Emily’s calamity. The mother “believes,” or tells herself and the person with whom she is speaking, that things such as her husbands abandonment, and her struggling economic situation gave way to little or no chance of proper care and nurturing. She even hints that the volatility of the socioeconomic and political situation of war contributed by mentioning in her final affirmation that she is a “child of her age, of depr

Reminded that this is an autobiography and having read the biography of Olsen, it could also be that her own life experiences prior to bearing Emily could have also absorbed some of the blame. Although it was not stated in the story, the mother, Tillie Olsen, was raised in a similarly harsh situation as her daughter Emily. She bore the wrath of the Depression and economic hardships. She also experienced the absence of parental nurturing as her parents, too, held several jobs. She even had to drop out of school to support her family during the depression. It is possible that Olsen’s own hardships created a new standard for how she would define hardships, and what it was to live a normal child hood. This parallel between Olsen and Emily’s upbringing could also be to blame for the poor parenting exemplified by “the mother.”

It is pretty clear that the mother uses every alley available to her in order to escape the guilt of, what is obvious to the reader and to whom she is speaking (presumably her school counselor), her own faults as a parent. She is doing one of two things; She is either denying her negative input, or she is being completely and utterly ignorant. She fails to recognize, at least in the story, that the most influent and problematic contribution to her daughter’s pain was herself. She does mention that the neighbor told her that she “should smile more” when she looked at her. The fact that the neighbor makes this comment reveals that her ill-natured and distant relationship was not only obviously

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Stand Ironing, Olsen Emily’s, Susan Ronnie, Tillie Olsen, Tillie Olsen’s, , stand ironing, emily born, contribute emily’s, story mother, emily passive,