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Example research essay topic: Shirley Temple Short Story - 1,405 words

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Helpless Before the Iron The short story I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olson, can be interpreted in a variety of different ways, depending upon how the story is analyzed, and which perspective is being taken. This story has many turns and angles which can be explored. To find a true meaning in this story is almost unprecedented, and it is a very confrontational form of literature. From a psychological perspective, this story was based on the emotional pull a mother has to one of her children and how the feelings of emotion race wild with every moment and situation in that child s life.

Most psychologists would agree that what has occurred in someone s past, or childhood, can have an astounding effect on how they react to certain situations as an adult. This type of analysis can be used to understand why the narrator (Emily s mother) feels the way she does about Emily s upbringing and her potential. The fact that her mother, the narrator, felt so attached to her daughter, Emily, makes me feel that the two had some sort of connection within each of their respected childhoods. It almost appears as if the narrator wants us to feel that connection by expressing her emotions so vividly and with such animation that you are almost compelled to feel that child s pain, happiness, and struggle through the narrator views and complications. The mother s connection with her daughter leads us to believe that it is her same childhood that is being examined as the basis for Emily s existence. Emily, without a father and often separated from her mother, is skeleton thin, quiet, slow, and thoughtful.

The narrator is almost expressing how she grew up by saying this. The question that is poised here is; why would a mother say such words about her daughter, with such animosity, and describe her in such a way? It is a possibility that she, too, was brought up the same way or had the same experiences as Emily. This leaves a statement on the narrator s views and feelings during the time of her daughter s childhood about how she feels Emily will grow up as well.

The narrator, her mother, is almost predicting her daughter s future by stating many detailed descriptions of feelings, which she may have felt as well in her child hood, and applying them to this life. Now this story has many contrasting images in it to provoke the ever on-going experiences that the narrator speaks about in such graphic reality. She speaks of the iron, and how it tends to pull the daughter and her mother apart. The narrator points out with the distinction of the iron, that maybe it showed how her mother was in the same situation as she is now, and that the feelings that she felt too at that point in her life are being expressed. A psychologist might also examine Emily s childhood to try and understand what affect it has on her today, and why she needs the help that she does. By the age of eighteen the narrator had married, had a child, been deserted by Emily s father, and forced into a succession of menial jobs forcing her to thwart the childs need for security and affection.

There is the sour smell of poverty. There is a strong sense of being trapped, of being helpless. One is aware that the economic plight of the parent is stunting the childs development. A sense of guilt (remembering the clogged weeping of a child abandoned during the day by her working mother) struggles with the sense of having done the best under the circumstances. I feel that Emily could sense this feeling of entrapment. Ironically, the well-meaning teacher and old man are of no real help, any more than the irresponsible absconding father.

The mother is bitter toward institutions that are insensitive to the real needs of those they serve. The mother calls nursery schools parking places for children where they suffer the fatigue of the long day, and the laceration of group life. Emily always had a reason to stay home. She felt deserted; yet, she yearned for the love and attention that her mother could not give, due to their financial situation. The convalescent home is superficially in good order, with well-tended grounds, children wearing bright bows, and sleek young women from the society pages holding festive fund-raisers.

However, the reality behind the facade is that of a prison: Rules are rigidly enforced. Children see their parents from a high balcony; they are allowed no personal belongings (not even letters); the poor food makes them lose weight. Emily changes radically there: I used to try to hold and love her after she came back, but her body would stay stiff, and after a while shed push away. Food sickened her, and I think much of life too. The schools Emily attends later reward the glib and quick, and since Emily is neither, the overworked and exasperated teachers label her as a slow learner. Emily was thin and dark and foreign-looking when every little girl was supposed to look or thought she should look like Shirley Temple.

She grows up with deep-seated fears and with an inability to make friends. She has been branded a slow learner and tries to escape the trauma of school by faking illness. She bears a corroding resentment toward her sister Susan who is everything in appearance and manner Emily is not. Her gifts show when on the stage she experiences for a time the recognition and approval she has long been denied. The mother recognizes and blames herself for her natural preference for the more attractive, more outgoing younger child. The attitude is one of acceptance of lowered expectations rather than of militancy and rebellion.

The child has been denied her full potential (like many others); the mothers hope is that Emily will make the best of what she has. Emily, in return, feels worthless as though she is merely a product of her childhood. I think that in a way, she feels like she has been ripped off. It s almost like a vicious cycle that needs to be broken. More likely than not, Emily will probably end up in a similar situation as her mother. From a feminist point of view, the story can be interpreted much differently, with a focus on different issues pertaining to women and their role.

The prominent theme seems to be not only oppression of women, but survival also. This story is based around the hardships of a woman growing up in the early nineteen hundreds. It has all the signs of being a real feminist short story. She talks about how Emily will not survive, and if she does not believe in future presence, in beginnings latent in her own life, everything is lost. This expresses how the times were different then, and how Emily better watch herself and take care or she may be in a never-ending struggle with human nature. A feminist could very well interpret this story in a totally different way putting an emphasis on women s roles in general instead of focusing on the individual characters.

The narrator states every little girl was supposed to look or thought she should look a chubby blonde replica of Shirley Temple. This shows how women were almost viewed as objects how they were expected to look a certain way in order to be presentable and desirable to men. Even today, women feel the pressure to conform to the likes of the models on the cover of fashion magazines. The narrator says in the last paragraph: she is more than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron.

The iron represents men, how they have control over the garment being ironed their role in society as the oppressors, and women their role as the oppressed. It also symbolizes the responsibility of the woman if the man leaves, the woman is stuck dealing with all of the wrinkles, because that is what she is supposed to do. The narrator is hoping that Emily will not be helpless, as she was, and hopes that her daughter will take a stand for women s rights. Despite her grim childhood, the mother doesn t want Emily to succumb to society s definition of women s roles during that time.


Free research essays on topics related to: emily, iron, women roles, short story, shirley temple

Research essay sample on Shirley Temple Short Story

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