Research/AnalysisRegardless of who they are and/or how they were raised, I Stand Here Ironing tells people readers that everyone has the capacity to be more than what the people around them as well as society at large tell them they should be. It's not exactly a revolutionary idea, but the way the story is told is anything but ordinary. The entire short story is an interior monologue of the narrator; a worried mother presumably of middle or lower class. The iron that the narrator uses in the story is actually a symbol of societal pressures, and the ironed clothes represent the narrator's daughter, Emily, who is the main subject of the story. It could also be said that “the physical act of smoothing wrinkles with an iron echoes the mental realignment of memories of the mother's actions and emotions” (Snodgrass). It is in the narrator's stream of consciousness that readers are introduced to the conflict of the story; the narrator has been approached by an unknown stranger, presumably a teacher, concerned about Emily's behavior and well-being. Emily's upbringing certainly wasn't perfect, it was difficult and stressful for her and her mother, but it was the best they could do at the time, which is why the narrator doesn't look in back with pity. Instead, she remembers with "realistic resignation to the circumstances of her daughter's life" (Snodgrass). There is a sense of intimacy and meditation in the way the story is presented that adds to the beauty of the whole in a way that would not occur if told other than as an intrapersonal narrative. Through this, the narrator shows readers a very raw version of what motherhood is, "stripped of any romantic distortions and reinfused with the power of a true metaphorical vision of the problems of individuality in the modern world" (Frye , 287). Ultimately, the narrator knows that her daughter will be fine because she is confident that Emily has grown up to be mentally and emotionally strong enough to remain true to herself even in the face of the iron heat of society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayAnswerThis is probably my favorite work we've read in class so far. I found it absolutely beautiful, but incredibly heartbreaking at the same time. I know most people would probably think the mother was the more relevant person, but I liked Emily's idea better. I think in many ways Emily reminded me of myself and the narrator reminded me of my own mother, which is why this story made me very emotional; something that is normally very rare. There were a lot of parallels between the characters in the story and my personal life that surprised me. For example, I am one of five children myself. My mother raised my older sister, my twin sister, and me alone after divorcing my unstable father when I was three. Nine years later, she remarried and I had a stepfather and two new half-sisters. The only real difference I could find between Emily and I was that she's the oldest and I'm the youngest. When I read this story, I imagined a similar story in which I was Emily and the narrator in the role of my mother. In my version of the story, there is no note from a concerned adult asking my mother to talk, but rather what was supposed to be my suicide note from last year, and my mother doesn't is not standing over her ironing board, but rather next to my hospital bed, but just like the narrator of I Stand Here Ironing,.