When I was first assigned the task of reading the book, “Tell me a riddle” by Tillie Olsen, I was gained more understanding about what she went through as a feminist activist. This motivated me to search more about her life, because I thought that I had known enough about her life until this new discovery. Thus my intent of researching more about her works led me into writing this paper, to help analyze her life and work. However, I found this a difficult task than I had considered. First I wondered why her works had to be that deep. But by going through her works one can’t fail to recognize the extent of her works ranging from motherhood; working class life; immigrant experience and marriage.
Olsen as noted by Schulze (113, para. 13) was a human rights and anti-war activist. Thus in her novels the themes she reflected on largely focused on women right issues like immigrant experiences that women face in their country of destination. Here she highlighted on the challenges that the women experience as well as the hardships and sufferings that some go through before fully acclimatizing with their new environment. She also focused on the motherhood affairs, the societal portrayal of these women as well as their roles. Also in her works, she recognized the life that the working class goes through. She looked at the two aspects of the working class women. One which is outstanding in her works is that working class women are more empowered and better placed to compete financially with the societal needs. However, they also experience some challenges in their life which are based on gender segregations. Therefore, as a women activists she managed to address women issues by covering the above themes in her work. She expressed the challenges women experience and addressed the need to ensure that equity is attained.
According to Lyons (100) Olsen was a born to Russian Immigrant and was the second born in a family of five. Thus Olsen was born Wahoo, Nebraska and while a child, her parents moved to Omaha. She went to Lake School which was located on the North Side of Omaha and later she attended Omaha High School. However, at 15 years she was forced to drop school and like the other immigrant girls she was forced to join the work force. During this time, she worked in various capacities including being a waitress, meat trimmer and domestic worker. In fact it is these positions that influenced her activist works. During her working life she joined the Union, and became one of the greatest union organizers. Her influenced grew beyond organizing unions to political activists. In fact it is during these times that she developed the desires to promote women affairs in the society. Since her desire to lead her community and promote women rights had grown beyond the union level, Olsen decided to join the American Communist Party. However, her smooth sail in the fight for women rights failed to materialize in 1934 when she was jailed for having participated with other unionists in a strike. As an activist she influenced other workers to strike against the packing house which led to her charge of making noise and strange noises. Olsen got married to Jack Olsen in 1944, however before this marriage they had stayed together for nearly 8 years. She lived in San Francisco for almost all her entire life, before moving to Berkeley in California during her 85th birthday where she stayed in a cottage just behind her younger daughter’s house.
Olsen found it hard to perfect on her writing skills because she was always working, thus she had no time. However, she had a good idea that after every time an idea crossed her mind she could put it down on a piece of paper. In fact this is what prompted her to improve on her writing when she was 19 years. In the 1930s she began the novel, “The Partisan Review” which was basically a reflection of her ideas and the hardships she went through. In this novel she was interested in putting her life experiences into a paper, thus it talked mostly of her political and contemporary life. However, the book was only published in 1974. She had to stop working on this book during the time period between 1934 to 1974. This is because work took large toll of her time. Also during this time she got married and thus she had to assist in the duties that society deemed that were meant for women. Thus she had to get time for house chores as well as time to keep working. In addition, it is during this time that she raised her children, thus she had to stop writing for childbearing duties. However, as much as she had to stop writing and completing her novel, she found it hard to stop putting her thoughts and ideas into paper. And it is this persistence that led to her riddle “Tell Me a Riddle”. In this fours short stories riddle, Olsen brought together the characters in a family (Hoffman, 9).
In this riddle, Olsen wrote four short stories, out of these short stories, three were focused on the point of view of mothers. Here Olsen wanted to help the world to understand women from their point of view as mothers. In fact out of these three, the first is the Stand Here Ironing which portrays a woman grieving for her daughter. This woman looks at the circumstances that contributed to her mothering life, and when she reflects on these circumstances she mourns for her daughter who is likely to pass through the same circumstances. The second is the “O Yes”, where she portrays the dwindling racial relationship that made the junior high school students who narrowed the relationship of the white and black girls. The third of these is “Hey Sailor, What Ship?”
Critics of Olsen’s work have focused on three aspects of her work. The first aspect being exploring on her feminist thoughts, here they have tried to establish why she focused on fighting for women rights. Other critics have looked at her working class or social roots. And the third critics have attempted to understand her adoption into Jewish American literary canon. The critics who have focused on Olsen’s feminist thoughts have argued that these thoughts are not motivated by her innermost desires. But instead they view Olsen’s drive to fight for women rights as something that roots from her communist past. Thus these critics believe that Olsen was not motivated by pure desire. Additionally, the critics have tried to oust her followers on the basis that her thoughts were influenced by communist past. However much they have tried to disapprove her contribution, they have accepted that her simplistic interpretation of feminist work is intriguing. Furthermore, these critics have accepted that her style of writing is one that is unique and admirable. This is because, Olsen’s riddle is written with lots of clarity and it’s full of good content that is informative and convincing. In fact her little literature was important in moving and propelling the world to consider the lives of the poor and women as a whole. In fact she is one of the first women to draw a comparison why women have not widely published their work. Thus her works became popular in the years that the feminist theory took sway of the entire world. Thus her work is considered as one of the literatures that have contributed to women writers’ recognition and to some extent the freedom in writing and publications by women. Women were unlikely to be recognized, and their works were not appreciated. Thus even when they wrote literatures, they were considered unimportant until Olsen promoted the women rights and forced the recognition of their works. And this is a fact that her critics appreciate (Terres, 131).
Olsen left a great legacy because of her works. First she excelled in the motherly role and was able to raise her children and live with her husband. This is remarkable because in addition to working and writing she managed to take care of her family. Even in her riddle “Tell Me a Riddle” Olsen identified her desire to ensure that mothers make their daughters future admirable and pleasing. She does this by informing mothers to always hold high their daughters priories in their hearts. She clearly develops this plot in her first short essay “Stand Here Ironing”. She is able to bring clearly this role and by using her unique language and story form, language that is close to poetry, she managed to convince and influence many audiences.
When I look at Olsen’s life by reading her works I sometimes tend to consider my life and see myself in her lenses. Her works really motivates me because they inform me that I can manage anything provided that I set my priorities right. Sometimes when I consider how at 19 she started struggling with writing albeit the fact that she was a high school dropout student, I see myself as a potential person, who can achieve life successes just like Olsen. In fact her style of writing has won many awards and I am influenced by her works. I sometimes look at what Olsen did and consider myself better because I have been given opportunity to make it through without breaking or dropping from school. Hence, it is up to me to look at Olsen as a figure that is to propel me to my future and life objectives.
In conclusion, Olsen’s works are numerous and marvelous. From motherly role, to immigrant woman, to a woman absorbed with work life, a feminist and a writer. Her books have motivated many people who have taken their team and read them. In fact, as noted by Scott Turrow “Tillie had invented a writing tradition of her own”, many people have been influenced to adopt these unique writing styles. It is on this basis that I have made a vow that I am not going to be left behind. I know that I have problems with the poem, but since Olsen made it after dropping out of high school, I now believe that I have got the potential to write wonders.
Work Cited
Schultz, Lydia A. "Flowing against the traditional stream: consciousness in Tillie Olsen's 'Tell Me a Riddle.' (American writer)(Interview)." MELUS 22.3 (1997): 113. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web 7 Dec. 2012.
Teres, Harvey. "Better Red: The Writing and Resistance of Tillie Olsen and Meridel Le Sueur." Studies in Short Fiction 34.1 (1997): 131. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web 7 Dec. 2012.
Hoffman, Alice. "Pen/Hemingway prize keynote address delivered at the John F. Kennedy library 30 March 2008." The Hemingway Review 28.1 (2008): 9. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web 28 Nov. 2012.
Lyons, Bonnie. "Tillie Olsen: The Writer as a Jewish Woman." Studies in American Jewish Literature 5 (1986): 89-102. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter and Deborah A. Schmitt. Vol. 114, Detroit: Gale Group, 1999. Literature Resource Center. Web 30 Nov. 2012.
