As the author mentions, both narrators suffer or experience oppression. In “Everyday Use,” Walker implies that the mother still lives in the shadow of slavery when she mentions that the mother could not look into the white man's eyes (337). Similarly, Olsen in his short story “I Stand Here Ironing” writes “I was nineteen. It was the world of pre-relief, pre-WPA depression” (224). Although the symbols in both stories have their implications; however, the act of ironing and quilting represents women's duties. Both stories demonstrate that women are typically portrayed as housewives. Alice Walker and Tillie Olsen embody the tension in the mother-daughter relationship. Both stories have different conflicts but share one tension; distance. In “Everyday Use” there is a distance between the narrator and her daughter Dee due to their different levels of education. They couldn't communicate with each other because they weren't on the same level. The narrator of "I Stand Here Ironing" also has a complex relationship with her daughter Emily as she has been absent from Emily's life and development. Although there are some conflicts in the mother-daughter relationship, both Emily and Dee continue to do so