Tell Me A Riddle, Requa I, And Other Works

1. Tell Me A Riddle, Requa I, And Other Works Written by Tillie Olsen

2. Introduction/Tell me a riddle Introduction Tell Me A Riddle Made up of short stories in forms of: Monologues, anthologized widely, films, staged productions, and operas Links characters from different generations Themes are: “Celebrate the endurance of human love and the passion…” (xiii), regardless of the poverty and racism going on at that time • Autobiography • Short Fiction written in the 1930’s • Transitions from a young activists to a mature fiction writer • Looks back in life to see how she has been shaped • “She was fierce in her insistence that people working together for social justice would make this world possible.” (pg xix) • This text, “may be demanding to read, requiring readers to engage fully to work, to participate in making the text’s meaning”

3. I stand here ironing/hey sailor, what ship? “I Stand Here Ironing” “Hey Sailor, What Ship?” Olsen moves in and our of Whitney’s (merchant marine) consciousness Whitney’s family members, Helen and Lennie become his refuge when he comes home between ship-outs. One day Whitney came home drunk and ill This projects how bad working conditions were • About a mother-daughter relationship • Mom’s influence daughters • There was economic poverty in the U.S. • Mother wishes that her daughter, Emily, changes her perspective of value when she grows up • “Only help her to know –help make it so there is cause for her to know-that she is more than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron.” (xiv)

4. Oh yes/middle of tell me a riddle “Oh Yes” Middle of Tell Me A Riddle Passions and conflicts arise in David’s and Eva’s relationship They got married during a political upheaval Their conflicts were tearing their relationship apart She was left feeling alone and David is left wanting companionship and sociability • Helen’s daughter, who is white, is forced to separate from her friend, who is black. • During racial segregation

5. Stories focus on…/requa I Stories Focus On: Requa I “Olsen…insists…that brokenness is the condition that elicits human bondedness” (xvii) Stevie (13 year old boy) His mom passed away, which caused him to move away from San Francisco Uncle, Wes, took care of him in Northern CA Story focuses on Wes’s commitment to take care of Stevie Stevie was completely withdrawn from human interaction and had a sense of physical disorientation, because of his loss. “As he works, Stevie’s own brokenness is inseparable from that of the junk, and along with the junk it is sorted though to see what is salvageable, what can be repurposed and be put to use.” (xviii) • complexity of family and marriage • marginalized by women • immigration • aging passion for justice • Olsen writes in such a way that any reader would be able to understand the characters she projects. • “These stories, and the passion, precision, and respect with which Olsen has written them, are a form of justice the lives of these characters insists we must call into living.”

6. Short nonfiction from and about the 1930s A Vision of Fear and Hope The Strike Thousand-Dollar Vagrant I Want You Women Up North To Know

7. A Vision of fear and hope “You mean you still have hope?” (pg. 133) Olsen reminisces about her childhood growing up during the Great Depression Millions of Americans were out of work, those in power were violent, and people were starving The American people were suffering, and even those with jobs were struggling (“The Beedo System”) Olsen talks about the two instances in which she was arrested due to a corrupted/paranoid government during the 1930s In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected and massive changes were being made: there were more job opportunities, people were being fed, and human rights were emphasized “Today, the vision of full human hood is battered, scorned, deemed ‘unrealistic.’” (pg. 138) Despite the hopelessness during The Great Depression, it was the catalyst that lead to “human flowering, and when the country was transformed by the hopes, dreams, actions of numerous nameless human beings hungry for more than food.” (pg. 138)

8. The strike Olsen recalls the 1943 West Coast Waterfront Strike in San Francisco while in a battlefield Policemen beat and even killed some protestors during the strike Howard Sperry, an exserviceman, and Nick Bordoise, a communist party member, were shot and killed by policemen during the strike Thousands watched the funeral procession, “fists clenched till knuckles were white, and people standing staring, saying nothing, letting it clamp into their hearts, hurt them so the scar would be there forever—a swelling that would never let them lull.” (pg. 146) The protestors became angrier after the death of two innocent protestor and sparked a greater will to fight the system inside of them

9. Thousand dollar vagrant Tillie Olsen explicates on the time she was arrested during the strike in 1934 Olsen is with three other men, when police men enter their home due to suspicions about the communist party The policemen are described as animals: beastly, cruel, and violent The policemen tear the house apart and interrogate them before arresting them and sending them to jail The mere fact that Olsen was with communists during the arrival of the policemen was enough to place on her a $1000 bail “ ‘Unfortunately Communism is no crime—as yet, though every other type of insanity allows us to place the culprit behind the bars. Communism is the effusion of halfwits.” (pg. 154)

10. I want you women up north to know Based on a letter by Felipe Ibarro in New Masses, January 9th, 1934 Asks the women in the North to reconsider the clothing they purchase and the material goods they value Describes the ghastly work environment of Maria, Catalina, and Ambrosa The poem attempts to inform the women up North of the horrifying work conditions of those who make their material goods that they take for granted Ends the poem saying that this type of work setting will can not and will not last forever