I Stand Here Ironing Analysis

“I came to a clear conclusion, and it is a universal one: To live, to struggle, to be in love with life--in love with all life holds, joyful or sorrowful--is fulfillment. The fullness of life is open to all of us” (Betty Smith). Betty Smith, born as Elizabeth Lillian Wehner, grew up in Brooklyn, New York as the daughter of poor German immigrants. At the time, child labor was legal and Smith began work at the young age of fourteen to help support her family. Smith’s life in the slums and her experiences during the Great Depression greatly influenced her writing. Most of her novels depict families struggling to survive on a low income. Another idea Smith explores in her novels is what part women should take in the world. In Smith’s lifetime, women were granted the right to vote and other significant rights that many did not agree on. In her books she created strong female leads that defy the bubble women were placed in at the time. Smith’s novels became highly popular with many Americans because she depicted the struggles of life in poverty that many people could relate to. Betty Smith was one of the most influential writers of her time, and her works impacted American culture in several ways.

In the short story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, and the drama “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell, the authors created two female protagonists “Miss Emily Grierson” and “Mrs. Minnie Wright” their stories are both about woman and murder. In Trifles, Mrs. Wright has been arrested and investigated for suspected murder of her husband. Miss Emily in Faulkner 's story, kills a man who she was dating. Together each writer uses setting to reveal more and more about the female protagonist’s emotional state or their conflict. The main female protagonist in each of the story/play sees themselves in many of the same aspects. In both the story/play the female-male relationship had a major impact on how the female characters actions are justified by their own standards.

UPS AND DOWNS. The nature of Emily's journey is in a . Emily's pain is caused by the lack of her mother's attention. At the beginning of the mother's reflection over Emily's life she is remembered as chubby cheeked joyful little baby. When Emily was little she had to stay with other people because her mom had to work. Her mother is persuaded to send her to a covalent home and Emily had a difficult time there because they didn’t allow any of the girls to keep personal belongings or "love anyone" (Olsen). After Emily came back from the covalent home, she became distant and refused her mother's attempts of comfort. A bright spot in Emily's life is her gift in comedy. The biggest obstacle for Emily would be not believing that she is helpless to the hardships life has thrown at

Despite its dull, ordinary setting, “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen is an extremely deep short story covering complex socio-economic issues spanning over two—very eventful—decades. The story shows how economic hardships could physically alter the stereotypical gender roles, while cultural traditions kept them mentally intact. When these two elements contradicted each other, they left women, like Tillie Olsen’s character, feeling emotionally responsible for the consequences. Although her husband left her and she was forced to assume the role of both the breadwinner and the homemaker at only nineteen years old, she blames herself for neglecting what was thought to be her primary duty as a woman: motherhood. As the reader can tell from

    Everyone is different in a away.  This statement also applies to characters in a story.  The main character in “A Rose for Emily” is Emily Grierson. She is a “Small, fat women in black” who lives in the big house, only one left, in which used to be the most select neighborhood (Faulkner 78).  Miss Emily’s father passed away and, her first sweetheart deserted her.  Nea is the main character in “Saving Sourdi”.  She is a bony, hard working, fourteen year old girl who loves her older sister, Sourdi, very much.  Miss Emily and Nae share their stubbornness and determination while also showing their differences.

The theme of people are scared of change is frequently supported throughout the story. In the story, on page one, lines five through nine, the wife, Lydia, suggests to the husband, George, to call a psychologist to take a look at the nursery because it has

Because her family was prominent in the town of Jefferson, Emily Grierson was watched her entire life and wondered about by everyone. The townspeople had a lot to do with Emily’s changing mental condition because they constantly gossiped about everything that happened in her life. It generally

“You can't judge an album by a single song; it's like judging a book by only reading a single chapter” Trevor Rabin. Although the short stories Cathedral and A Rose for Emily have completely different plots, they both have morals that are described in this quote. Cathedral follows around a blind man named Robert visiting an old friend and her husband, who does not care for the Robert. A Rose for Emily is about Emily, a woman who is perceived as a local oddity but soon the townspeople realize she is not just odd, but also a little bit crazy. Both Emily from the short story, A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, and Robert from Cathedral by Raymond Carver, portray characters that become of the targets of premature assumptions, but when the

In William Faulkner’s short story, A Rose for Emily, Emily Grierson, a prominent member of her small town, dies alone in her home. Upon her death, curious townsfolk entered her home trying to learn her secrets. It was thought she was crazy. Emily Grierson was not crazy; she was isolated by her father, which led to her odd social tendencies and unique interactions with others. A Rose for Emily is a short story based in a small town. The narrator focuses a lot on Emily Grierson after her death. The narrator said multiple times they believed she wasn’t crazy. However, their actions proved to show the opposite.

William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily”, centers around a reclusive woman named Emily Grierson who is the protagonist of this story. Emily lives in Jefferson, Mississippi with her strict and over protective father who turns away any male suitor who shows any interest in her as he believes them to be unfit for his daughter. Emily and her father are regarded as upper-class southerners who live in a very nice home. The townspeople see Emily as a mysterious individual, often pitting her. After Emily’s father passes away, she begins to live life on her own terms. It is evident that she seeks power because her father limited her from having any. Emily disregards the law by not paying taxes, she does not allow numbers

In William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily, time is the relentless master to which society must bow down or be left in its wake, and those who cannot accept change will be left to descend into madness and murder. This is the case with Emily when she refuses to let go of a time long since passed, and resorts to unscrupulous methods in an attempt to preserve tradition. Throughout the course of the story Faulkner leaves bits of clues and glimpses into what happens when tradition will not make way for progress, like a literary bread crumb trail, through the utilization of metaphors, symbols, and allusions.

Throughout human history, humans have been known to execute gruesome acts. Whether these acts are small and insignificant or massive and change history, humans are capable of performing horrific plots against one another. To make matters worse, most of the people who commit these terrible crimes are people who are entirely in a clear state of mind. Nevertheless, there are some cases in which the line between sanity and mental instability blurs. For example, there is an ongoing debate regarding the mental health of the main character in William Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily.” Throughout the story, the main character, Miss Emily Grierson, shows signs of what appears to be some form of mental illness. Although Faulkner never states that Miss Emily has anything wrong with her mental health, he does provide enough evidence to support that she is not psychologically stable.

The short stories A Rose for Emily and Miss Brill have two characters Emily Grierson, the

Examples include Mr Cutter buying life insurance less than 24 hours before he dies, and Nancy writing down the day’s events in her diary. I found that especially heartbreaking, because it shows us how fragile life really is, From Nancy’s point of view, she just notes down the boring uneventful happenings of the day, but after she has been tragically murdered, the readers know the value of those small, uneventful happenings. In a way, Nancy’s diary is a metaphor for the hopes and aspirations of the family they never will never get to fulfil. Nancy writes down her feelings and hopes for a later day, but that day never

William Faulkner is a complex writer who knows how to set a great pace in his stories. He is also a very flexible writer which allows the openness of many topics to write on because of his unconventional style. In his short story, "A Rose for Emily", you can interpret how times are so different from today. Although it was not during slavery times, things were not much more advance than that. The dominance of gender or social roles shown on women, particularly Miss Emily, may be seen as harsh or unfair.