I really enjoyed reading this short story by Tillie Olsen, who I've never heard of until now. I thought it gave great insight of a mother who struggled to raise her daughter the way she hoped she would have. It was more of her not being able to give her oldest daughter the same care she was to the other children. She was raising her oldest daughter, Emily, without the support of a husband for the first years of her life.
She had to go to work to try and support the two of them. First working days and then she found a job working nights but it got to the point where she had to take Emily to her father's parents house. By the time she was able to see her again a lot of time had passed, Emily was walking and she had many traits that resembled her father. She was two when she was sent to nursery school and she tried to convince her mother, with a new story every morning, that they should not leave the house and that she shouldn't go to school. She never gave direct protest or had loud outburst as the other children did. She wanted to spend her days bonding with her mother. Emily's mother eventually remarried and had four more children.
An old man who lived behind them once said to the mother, "You should smile at Emily more when you look at her." Emily did not smile easy, she was quiet and somber. Emily had to be sent away for eight months when she was seven to recover from red measles.
Emily and her sister Susan only had a few good moments together. Susan was everything that Emily was not. Susan was five years behind Emily but was only a year behind when compared in physical development. Emily was very self-concious about what she said and looked like. Emily had to help her mother do the mothering;with the four younger brothers and sisters she was the one helping to get everyone ready for school and doign chores she had no time to be a child herself.
There were moments when Emily's mother was busy writing letter, doing chores,and ironing that Emily would imitate different things from school, to make her mother laugh. Then one day she decided to perform in school amatuer show and won. She started gettign asked to perform at other schools. Emily was left to do with the gift what she could because her mother didn't have the money or the knowledge of what to do with her talent.
When Emily came home one night she said, " Don't get me up with the rest in the morning." She had midterms the next morning but didn't think that school was all that important when everyone would be atom-dead in a matter of a bit. Emily really believed this. Should her mother just let her be; or should help her see that she was more than the helpless dress on the ironing board. Emily had talent that needed a little push to grow and to succeed.
We all have talents that are unique and make us who we are. We need to cherish what we have been given and have pride in ourselves and our uniqueness.
"Mountains of music swell in the rivers, hills of music billow in the creeks, and the meadows of music murmur in the rills that ripple over the rocks, while other melodies are heard in the gorges of the lateral canyons. The Grand Canyon is a land of song."
