Children are products of their moment in history, of prevailing conventions and wisdom, of social crusades." (Weissbourd 27)
Lidoff, points out the value of the diconect, as it is seen through the narration of perception, rather than reality of feeling. Reflecting that one really can not know another, no matter how close one is to them or how much they wish they could, be the key to their understanding.
Mothers and daughters especially, in "I Stand Here Ironing"... are portrayed as they exist within the minds and feelings of each other: they are imaged by reflection, without the distinction between them always being clear -- to them, to us, to the narrator. The story of one becomes the story of the other with the nearly imperceptible figure-ground reversal of an optical illusion.
Lidoff 405)
The mother and daughter, can then be one person, with or without flaws, that reflects the value and work of the other. The relationship may be built upon perception, rather than reality but this truly is how we see our own children,...
The value of the relationship between mother and daughter is clear, as the two share a connection, like no other, but it is a connection of distance. The world is strained, as the mother waits patiently for the daughter to come to her, even though this has not been the pattern of their relationship.
Works Cited
Lidoff, Joan. "Fluid Boundaries: The Mother-Daughter Story, the Story-Reader Matrix." Texas Studies in Literature and Language 35.4 (1993): 398-420.
Carter, Susan ed. Mothers and Daughters in American Short Fiction: An Annotated Bibliography of Twentieth-Century Women's Literature. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993.
Olsen, Tillie, I Stand Here Ironing Retrieved October 1, 2007 at http://ee.1asphost.com/shortstoryclassics/olsenironing.html
Weissbourd, Richard. The Vulnerable Child: What Really Hurts America's Children and What We Can Do about it. Reading, MA: Perseus Books, 1996.
