Major English (Bachelors in Arts) | Tribhuvan University

I stand here ironing by Tillie Olsen is a short story that first appeared in Pacific Spectator. The story is written in first person format from the point of view of a mother of a troubled child addressed to the child’s teacher. The narrator is recounting her firstborn’s daughter’s troubled and precarious childhood. Hence the story takes a retrospective tone where she is reminiscing about her past and all the challenges faced by single mother in the middle of the twentieth century. The story begins with the narrator ironing some clothes. While doing this task, she is clearly troubled by a summon from the teacher of her firstborn child Emily to discuss about her current situation. It is hinted that Emily possessed high artistic potential but there lingers perhaps a dark side to her that is kept hidden. Hence she goes journeying into her past to the time Emily was born and all the hardships of that time. Emily was raised by the narrator as a single mother when she was herself merely nin...