"I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen

Analysis-

Characters:
- A warn down mother, with several children.
- Emily, the troubled child. The first child, some may call the "test dummy".

Characteristics:
- The mother was a young mother. She was overworked and made several mistakes with her first child. This shows the difficulties of being a single mother and trying to make ends meet.
- The daughter, Emily, was a sweet, loving child in her younger years. Then she was sent to a "school" where love and tenderness was not allowed. When she came back, she was changed.

Setting:
- No completely sure.

Plot:
Introduction: A young, single mother deals with her first child and trying to make a living.
Rising Action: Puts her into a "school" to help her and all it does is make it worst.
Climax: Mother realizes that her daughter is now emotionally detached.
Falling Action: Accepting it and letting her daughter be herself.
Denouement: Realizing all she can do is help her daughter experience life from now on.

Conflict:
Man vs. Himself (Psychological). The mother feels like she has let her daughter down. But all she can do now is help her from this point forward in her life.

Response-

I didn't like this story as much. It flipped several times for me. It was hard to see the mother struggling against everything in the beginning. My mother was a single mother from the time I was nine and on. She is an amazing mother and would do anything for my brother and I. I can only imagine how hard it was for this mother after she sent her to that school to help her and she came back the way she was.