1. “I STAND HERE IRONING” THEMATIC STATEMENT Because the mother is characterized as recognizing her past flaws and failures, her attitude toward her daughter is one of defeated love

2. LITERARY ELEMENTS  Lines 1-26  Metaphor  Rhetorical Questions  Polysyndeton  Tonal Shift  Point of View/Parallel Structure  Lines 61-88  Point of view shifts  Parallelism  Cacophonous diction  Metaphor  Polysyndeton  Lines 27-60  Juxtaposition  Cacophonous Diction  Euphonious Diction  Point of view  Understatement

3. RECOGNITION OF FLAWS/FAILURES  Metaphor of the iron:  “I stand here ironing, and what you ask me moves tormented back and forth with the iron” (1-2)  Ironing: the process of straightening out wrinkles or imperfections

4. DEFEATED ATTITUDE/TONE  Rhetorical questions:  “What good would it do? You think because I am her mother I have a key, or that in some way you could use me as a key?” (7- 9)  Draws attention to the mother’s apprehension/ discouraged attitude  Polysyndeton:  “And when is there time to remember, to sift, to weigh, to estimate, to total?” (12-13)  Emphasis added with each addition – a long list of things to accomplish

5. LOVE FOR DAUGHTER  Tonal Shift:  “She was a beautiful baby” (18)  Positive language immediately following a negative/ defeated paragraph – no transition  Two tones about one subject (her daughter)  Short in length – greater impact  Point of View/ Parallel Structure:  “You do not guess how new and uneasy her tenancy in her now-loveliness. You did not know her all those years…” (19-21)  The mother is distinguished from “you” (the others)  She sees her daughter in a way that others cannot

6. RECOGNITION OF FLAWS/FAILURES  Juxtaposition:  Lines 49-51: “ …I was nineteen. It was the pre-relief, pre-WPA world of depression…..when she saw me she would break into a clogged weeping that could not be comforted,…”  Lines 52-54: “ She is so lovely….She will find her way.”  Creates an effect of surprise of how the mother can talk about the negative of being a single mother and have the tone of defeat, but then her attitude shifts to the overwhelming joy and love for her daughter.  Rhetorical Question:  Line 33: “ Why do I put that first?”  Draws the attention to the point where the mother reflects on her downfalls of life

7. DEFEATED ATTITUDE  Cacophonous Diction  Lines 30-31: “ Through her cries battered me to trembling and my breast ached with swollenness..”  The harsh tone. Her defeat of being a good mother  Euphonious Diction:  Lines 35-37: “ She was beautiful baby. She blew shining bubbles of sound. She loved motion…”  The diction and tone of the mother shifted from a defeated attitude to the joy and love she had for her daughter..

8. LOVE FOR DAUGHTER  The Mother’s Point of View :  Lines 42-43: “ …. and for Emily’s father,….”  The fact that the mother uses the daughter’s name once to acknowledge Emily’s father, establishes that Emily is more than a name. In the mother’s eyes the daughter is someone that cannot be adequately described.  Highlights the bond of their relationship that no one can understand. (mother & daughter connection)

9. RECOGNITION OF FLAWS/FAILURES  Shifts from first person point of view to third person  Shows the limitations her life placed upon her, and how that affected her daughter  “I will” or “I had to” (65-67)  “she was” (70-73)  “I was” (75-76)  “she has” or “she is” or “help her to know” (81-86)

10. LOVE FOR DAUGHTER  Metaphor  “could not afford for her the soil of easy growth…there were the other children pushing up” (74-76)  Planting: want to grow/cultivate something. Willing to care for/work.  Other children “pushing up”: distinguishes her from others because she’s not pushing up like others  “she is more than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron” (87-88)  Ironing: want to fix creases (flaws)  She’s more than just a bunch of flaws

11.  Polysyndeton  “She was dark and thin and foreign-looking in a world where prestige went to blondeness and curly hair and dimples” (70-72)  Places an emphasis on each idea  Magnifies what the mother thought of her vs what society thinks