Theme Of Fear And Isolation In Tillie Olsen's I Stand Here Ironing

The short story “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen is a story with the theme of both fear and isolation. The tale takes place in the 1950’s when the Cold War was still a major event, which indicates the fear in the story, while the protagonist in the story, Susan, represents the isolation because she believes that she and all those left will parish from nuclear war in the years to come, so she separates herself and displays signs of depression. The first theme, being fear, can be seen through the tone in the story with it extremely being depicted in the quote Susan says to her mother close to the conclusion of the story, “In a couple years when we’ll be atom-dead they won’t matter a bit”. The way in which Susan spoke these words had the