character analysis on Tillie Olsen's I Stand Here Ironing
...to find comfort and solitude in what now days may be referred to as an eating disorder. Emily is shuffled from other family members to a home for children and even forced to stay alone by herself at a very young age. Emily remains to be a constant scab on her mother’s shoulder, always occupying her thoughts and worries. An unfortunate product of her environment, Emily is held captive by the chains of the Great Depression. Several years pass and her mother remarries and becomes pregnant again with her second child. Emily is now back in the home, too. Still sickly in appearance, her mother constantly worries about her well being, and what she hasn’t been able to do for her. Emily is seldom happy and wishes to not go to school as much as she can get away with it. She is referred to as “ a slow learner”, and does not seem to fit in in the outside world at all. As Emily’s childhood years go by, she develops into a young teenager, and devolves an appetite, too! As she comes of age, a glimmer of hope appears in the form of an amateur contest at her school. Through her creative ability to act out things she sees around her, she enters the contest. The audien...