[1] “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen centers on two main characters: Emily and her mother. While Emily's mother appears neglectful and sometimes selfish, upon closer examination of her character, voice, and appeal to the reader's pathos, the mother actually holds her daughter's well-being above her own. The couple endures hardships throughout the text, but the mother always does her best to raise her daughter, making every decision with Emily's best interests as the central factor. As Olsen weaves her tale, she makes allusions and suggests details about the mother. Usually the mother makes an offhand comment about something other than herself, but the particular way the thought is phrased and the choice of words says a lot about the mother and how she feels. Olsen does not devote much textual space to developing a rich characterization of the mother; the details given about Emily's mother are sparse to say the least. The majority of information available to the reader about the mother appears in context or in reference to Emily's life, a rhetorical indicator that the mother's life is second only to Emily's. The narrator - Emily's mother - is never even properly named, perhaps intentionally so that readers must always think of her as "The Mother", which begs the reader to parallel her with the archetypal mother figure .[3]When the story opens, the mother's first sentence sets a tone that can easily go unnoticed: "what you asked of me he moves tormented back and forth with the iron" (671) . The prose has barely begun but the reader already knows that the mother is tormented by something. In a few lines, we discover that she is tormented by the call from the guidance counselor. Emily's guidance counselor asks for help at ...... middle of paper ...... even though the two are certainly related). It is not considered completely irresponsible or negligent to put your child to bed and then go out for an hour or two, assuming the child knows you are gone but will return soon. Therein lies absolution for the parents, as it has been suggested that they had gone out on other nights without hurting Emily and the fact that this particular instance stands out so strongly in the narrator's mind suggests that it was a coincidence. Although there are a variety of moments where the mother seems neglectful, such as sending Emily away or leaving her house alone, although the mother is ultimately looking out for Emily's best interests. As a single mother during the Great Depression, without any support from anyone for many years, she placed her daughter's well-being above all else, regardless of the difficulties and struggles it would create in his own life..