In this story by Tillie Olsen, a woman reviews events that may help a counselor better understand her nineteen-year-old-daughter. In the process, she questions the extent to which she may be responsible for her daughter’s problems. Poor care choices and lack of attention as an infant, and conflict with her younger sister as she grew up, have clearly affected the girl’s emotional development. A key question is what, if anything, could the woman have done differently in a society indifferent to the plight of single mothers. Themes: parenting, mother-daughter relationships, female identity, child cruelty, guilt, acceptance, hope.
Perhaps the saddest aspect of the story is the way mother and daughter give up on their responsibilities at the end. The girl doesn’t care about her school results because she is convinced everyone will soon be “atom-dead”. The mother, perhaps selfishly, rationalizes sparing herself the indignity of explaining all to the counselor with the thought: So all that is in her will not bloom—but in how many does it? There is still enough left to live by. Ironically, she then goes on to ask: …help make it so there is cause for her to believe that she is more than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron. She has made this more difficult, if not impossible, by not supplying the requested information!
Original Text / PDF / Audio (3,350 words)