Sibling Relationships in Everyday Use and I Stand Here Ironing - Assignment Example

Sibling Relationships in “Everyday Use” and “I Stand Here Ironing.” Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” and Tillie Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing” are poignant short stories which focus on the mother-daughter relationship. “Everyday Use” explores the meaning of heritage in the context of the markedly different relationship which exists between a mother and her two daughters, Dee and Maggie. Walker conveys the message that heritage is truly cherished when it is a part of everyday life and not merely exhibited as an exotic accessory. In “I Stand Here Ironing,” a mother reflects on her struggle to raise her daughter Emily during the harsh years of the Great Depression and the World War. She questions the decisions she has made and their effect on her daughter. The mothers are the narrators in “Everyday Use” and “I Stand Here Ironing.” Another point of similarity in the two stories is the sibling relationships. Walker’s Dee and Maggie, and Olsen’s Emily and Susan, are sisters whose interactions play important roles in the development of the narratives. The two pairs of siblings experience similar treatment from their mothers, and have similar personalities and sibling relationships. Maggie in “Everyday Use” and Emily in “I Stand Here Ironing” are treated in similar ways by their mothers. Maggie and Emily are the elder daughters in poor households. In these circumstances, they are called upon to share a significant part of the mothers’ domestic burdens. Maggie cleans the yard, stays back in the kitchen to wash-up after dinner and, unlike her sister, knows all the household tasks, including quilting. Her position is the family is “like somebody used to never winning anything, or having anything reserved for her” (Walker, 74). In the same way, Emily is obliged “to help be a mother, and housekeeper, and shopper” (Olsen, 5). Maggie and Emily bear the brunt of the family’s poverty. It is Dee who is sent to school in Augusta by the money her mother raises with church aid. Similarly, Emily’s mother admits, “We were poor and could not afford for her the soil of easy growth” (Olsen, 7). Emily is left in the care of a neighbor, with her father’s family, in a daycare nursery and in a convalescent home. Walker’s narrator placidly condones the selfishness of the successful Dee, who has carved a place for herself in the outside world, and takes for granted the stay-at-home Maggie, who stoically bears her modest lot. Similarly, Olsen’s mother admits that, unlike her younger siblings, Emily is “a child of her age, of depression, of war, of fear” (Olsen, 7). It is clear that the younger siblings, Dee and Susan, receive preferential treatment from the two mothers. The mothers come to acknowledge this discrimination. Maggie’s mother makes amends by refusing to give Dee the quilts, while Emily’s mother hopes the Emily will “find her way” (Olsen, 7) in the future. The siblings in the two stories also share appearances and personalities. Maggie is “homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs” (Walker, 2). She shuffles and sidles up to people, is afraid to meet strangers and totally lacks self-confidence. Her mother declares, “She knows she is not bright. Like good looks and money, quickness passes her by” (Walker, 13). Similarly, Emily’s walk is nervous. Her skin is scarred by pock marks and she stammers in class. Her mother says “She was not glib or quick” (Olsen, 4). In contrast, the younger siblings are pretty and confident. Dee is “lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure” (Walker, 10). She is attractive, extroverted, confident and ready to take what she wants. Likewise, Susan is “golden and curly haired and chubby, quick and articulate and assured, everything in appearance and manner Emily was not” (Olsen, 5). The mothers themselves admit that the elder girls are inferior to their younger siblings in attractiveness and personality. The two pairs of siblings experience similar relationships. Maggie is conscious that “her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, that "no" is a word the world never learned to say to her” (Walker, 2). She looks upon Dee “with a mixture of envy and awe” (Walker, 2) and is willing to sacrifice the quilts to Dee as her natural right to the best things in life. She has learnt to accept a subordinate position in the sibling relationship, as “This was the way she knew God to work” (Walker, 75). Dee demands everything as her right, and does not consider Maggie’s claims. Similarly, Susan cannot “resist Emily’s precious things, losing or sometimes clumsily breaking them” (Olsen, 5). Susan relates Emily’s riddles and jokes to applauding company, while Emily remains silent. Emily never resorts to “a direct protest” or to the “explosions, the tempers, the denunciations, the demands” which Susan uses to get her way (Olsen, 2). Both the sibling relationships are marked by conflict and ill-feeling. The mother confesses of Dee: “I used to think she hated Maggie” (Walker, 11). Likewise, Emily’s mother senses Emily’s “corroding resentment” towards Susan (Olsen, 8). Maggie gives in to Dee, while Olsen’s narrator mediates in “that poisonous feeling between them, that terrible balancing of hurts and needs I had to do between the two” (Olsen, 5). The sibling relationships have both gone wrong. The sibling relationships described in “Everyday Use” and “I Stand Here Ironing” is the consequence of the girls’ relationships with their mothers and the contrast in their personalities. The two pairs of relationships are characterized by rivalry and unequal status. In my experience, these relationships reflect real-life sibling interactions. Sibling rivalry is very common and the roots often lie in the competition for parental attention and affection. It is usual for many parents to unconsciously favor the prettier or cleverer child over the slower, less attractive sibling. This results in one child’s feeling of entitlement and the others resentment. Some siblings go on to overcome this childhood rivalry and establish warm, caring relationships based on shared family. However, in many cases, the negative feelings of childhood persist over a lifetime. Works Cited. Olsen, Tillie. “I Stand Here Ironing.” Title of Collection. Ed. Editor's Name(s). City of Publication: Publisher, Year. Page range of story. Medium of Publication. Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” Title of Collection. Ed. Editor's Name(s). City of Publication: Publisher, Year. Page range of story. Medium of Publication. My online texts: “Everyday Use”: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug97/quilt/walker.html “I Stand Here Ironing”: http://quatrophonic.com/database/imgs/81935030.pdf Read More