I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olsen

Question:

Sometimes if the reader only knows about a character through the eyes of another, the portrait that emerges is flat. Explain how you would evaluate Emily's character in "I Stand Here Ironing." In what ways is it rounded or flat? 

Response:

Emily's character throughout, "I Stand Here Ironing" by Olsen, is told throughout the eyes of her mother. Emily's character gets layers of persona gets peeled off as the mother grows deeper in her reflection. In the beginning, their is an introduction of Emily as a "beautiful baby," but very soon after the mother describes her with "all the baby loveliness gone." This is a first evident clue to the reader that Emily is rounded with growth and change in perspective. Yet, this is all relativity. This is all said from the mother, which cannot fully express Emily and her actual growth. We simply see growth from the mother's look, but this cannot be full-heartedly reliable. Emily could of been the same from a baby to age two, the mother could of had an internal shift within herself to change the way she see's her daughter. Thus making Emily flat in reality, with no actual growth. Moving past this unavoidable conflict with the verisimilitude offered to the reader on the truth behind Emily, the mother does continue to name countless aspects introduced into Emily's teenage years which would result in some addition of dimension. For example, such as when the mother "[sent] her away to a convalescent home in the country" and "it took... eight months to get her released home." This motherly absence for any child would put some physiological hindrance on the child. She is later described as insecure "about her appearance, thin and dark and foreign," yet their is an inverse personality when she is on stage. "Her rare gift for comedy on the stage that rouses laughter out of the audience so dearly they applaud and applaud and do not want to let her go." This is heavily dimensional, on her attitude from home to out in front of stage, and should less likely be doubtful from the reader on Emily's roundness.

Regarding her past conflicts, Emily is rounded as she grows from her past. Her past shapes her point of view and action as implied by her mother, however the reader's reluctance to accept the narrators take on the story would determine if Emily is indeed flat or round. However, moving past the the question to what degree is Emily's character developed, what about the narrator? I feel the actual concept of Emily is but a detail; the reflections put on Emily is simply an implied development in the mother's thoughts and perspective. Although the story is of Emily, the story revolves around the mother's development which cannot be denied with verisimilitude.