"I Stand Here Ironing" was written in the first person so that we could see Emily the way
her mother (narrator) saw her. Through her reverie, we feel the mother's pain that her
daughter felt ugly as a child. We ache with the knowledge that she had to send Emily to
the daycare with the "evil teacher" and to a convalescent home when she was
desperately ill. We feel her regrets that she couldn't be there with Emily as she was
growing because she was working too hard to keep the family together. When Emily is in
high school we are proud with the mother that Emily is performing on stage - a…
