I Stand Here Ironing

In "I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen, I feel that Emily knew her mother treated her differently because she was different. She wasn't the blonder Shirley Temple replica like her younger sister, that everyone expected her to be. And this bothered Emily every time she looked in the mirror at her bland appearance. "You should smile at Emily more when you look at her" (p. 284). Emily only saw the struggling that her mother was going through. That had to have been hard on Emily to be such a bother to her family. "They persuaded me at the clinic to send her away to a convalescent home in the country" (p. 285) Only later in life, Emily's mother will have to explain to Emily why she made the choices she made. Even though Emily was an "overconscientious slow learner" (p. 286), she only wanted to be loved by her mother, spend time with her and have a normal, healthy relationship with her. IF she could have only mustered up the courage to tell her mother what she wanted to tell her, it probably would have been something along the lines of 'stay with me, spend time with me, love me like a normal child'. "Momma, I feel sick." (p. 284) was Emily's way of trying to tell her mother to spend time with her instead of sending her away. This was her way of expressing this to her mother.