I Stand Here Ironing

As the narrator considers her experience with motherhood, she tackles struggles both inherent in the condition and imposed by society. In the third paragraph she states, “You think because I am her mother I have a key, or that in some way you could use me as a key? She has lived for nineteen years. There is all that life that has happened outside of me, beyond me” (749). The quote expresses a paradox of motherhood: Something that was once a part of the mother’s body is supposed to become its own entity. In a literal sense, that happens at birth; however, a newborn is still entirely reliant on the mother for care, nourishment, etc. This dependency continues through childhood, diminishing as the child ages until at some point the child is entirely independent, at least in theory. Here, however, the narrator suggests that all of her oldest daughter’s life has been “beyond” her—a commentary on how much of the narrator’s own life has been “beyond” her, as external circumstances frequently kept her from deeper involvement in her daughter’s life.

The rest of the text shows how thoroughly the narrator nevertheless worked to care for her daughter, with the next mention of motherhood demonstrating her willingness to sacrifice for her child.