Tillie Olsen

“There are worse words than cuss words, there are words that hurt.”
Tillie Olsen

"The clock talked loud. I threw it away, it scared me what it talked."
Tillie Olsen

The line above "it scared me what it talked" is a line that speaks to me louder than anything I have ever read. Clocks remind me of so much more than just the time.
It is a constant reminder of my shorting life and how every minute that passes is another minute I grow old. I am sure that clock gave her nightmares about her life. I am sure it chimed over and over alone, alone at the stroke of every hour. Reminding her how lonely her world is.


"I Stand Here Ironing" to me is a confession of a mom about how she raised her eldest daughter. She tells us how she abandoned Emily and lack of affection for the child has made her daughter withdrawn from other people. The school official wants to help the child, but the mother is clueless on what the child needs. "That in some way you could use me as a key?" make me a little mad. It almost sounds like the mother doesn't care. At the end of the paragraph is says "that life has happened outside of me, beyond me." What the hell Lady! If someone is willing to help the girl more than you can than let them. I don't like to hear about poor people who keep having children when they can't take of the ones they have now. This story makes me want to get on my soap box.