Reader Response Theory Applied To I Stand Here Ironing
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I Stand Here Ironing is a monologue of a mother reflecting on the troubled childhood of her oldest daughter Emily, who is now nineteen years old. The monologue moves between the present and the past, beginning from the birth of Emily during the Depression when the woman herself was just nineteen years old. In her monologue, the mother painfully recalls the reality of having to neglect Emily because of circumstances beyond her control. The mother tells her anguished tale to someone who the reader supposes is Emily's social worker or guidance counselor. The mother is caught between feeling responsible for her daughter's unhappy childhood and recognizing her powerlessness and lack of alternatives.
The reader-response theory uses who you are as a person, your experiences, and your own point of view to describe your analyses of the story. Who you are causes you to interpret a story in a certain way, and certain things may speak out to different people in numerous ways.
Being a single young mother is hard enough in today's world, but perhaps even more so during the Great Depression, about seventy years ago. I could personally relate to I Stand Here Ironing, because my own mother had me when she was nineteen years old. I have seen how this situation affects the mother and child from first hand
Experience, and this story of hardship appeals to me from my own upbringing...