Below the Ironing Board

The first thing that I notice is that the narrator, Elizabeth, recognizes her mother’s despair from a young age. While she doesn’t fully understand the depth of it, because her mother doesn’t speak much of past things, she understands that her mother is affected by the loss in her life. On page 4, the narrator talks about the twenty-third Psalms (“The Lord is my Shepard, I shall not want…”), and the affect it has on her mother. Instead of the scripture being a comfort to her, the words are a reflection of sorrow to her mother. She associates the words with death because they’re repeatedly spoken at funeral services. While Elizabeth (child’s view) views the manuscripts as “beautiful,” they are a reminder of tragedy in her mother’s eyes. As a result, the narrator wants to protect her mother because she senses “something fragile” in her (9). The narrator can also see the disintegration of her parent’s marriage, 1968. She acknowledges the fact that it may have already been falling apart before, but this is when she begins to notice (12).

            I also see two or three separate perspectives of the child’s eye. Two from the children who have grown up in nuclear homes, at some point, have different viewpoints from that of the children who live in foster care. (This is something that is repeated in time). In Hayward, Elizabeth’s mother’s childhood was somewhat magical. Although Aunt Dorothy later reveals her father’s infidelities to Elizabeth, her mother adores their father. She has good memories in a home where there are “treasures in the attic…” and she and her sister can jump “from the barn roof with umbrellas, hoping for flight (12).” Although the children may have had opposing viewpoints of their father, at least one (or maybe both girls, we don’t get much of Dorothy’s childhood perspective), was able to dream and the other able to distinguish. (Distinguish referring back to the counselor remarks about the “Care kids” being unable to express their emotions. Happy, angry, sad, etc.) At The Shelter Care (84-85), the children are described as “lost” and “thrown away” as a result of their circumstances (molestation, physical and mental abuse, etc.), which cases their mistrust of adults. “It’s a matter of survival. It’s dangerous to get attached, to open up, to confide. Everyone must first be measured. Everyone is found lacking.” The children who have been cast away can only see as far as their hurt, because that’s all they know.

In contrast, the narrator gives us a rundown of names that connect husband to wife on both sides of her children’s family. (Her mother and father, her grandparents, Aunt Dorothy and her husband, Dora and her husband, Grace and Rodrigo (Fernando’s grandparents), Norma and her husband Poncho, etc.) While there may have been some issues within the family, the narrator provides a history of relationships, many of which standing the test of time. These are positive examples that, for instance, the “Care kids” don’t have. “He is the only one they trust,” is how the narrator describes the children in relation to her 2year old son Michael. The images they see looking up from the ironing board have all been distorted, because adult = hurt and mistrust to them. This is why Michael is favored because they view him beneath the ironing board where it’s safe.

            Finally, dreams, illusions, and foretelling of the future occurs below the ironing board. Dora sees her Aunt’s death as a child before it occurs, and her mother slaps her for it (22). Fernando sees his wife in a dream before he ever meets Elizabeth. “It was in a vision,” he says (47). Fernando’s tata Rodrigo knows from childhood, he will marry Grace. He is twelve at the time and Grace is just a baby. “Daughter of a schoolteacher…he would marry her (69).”       

Britney Hill (Brit)