Reading+project

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 *  Yonnondio: From the thirties

**The author** // Tillie Lerner Olsen // was born early in the 19th century. She was born on a cold winter day January 14, 1913 in “the land of opportunity”. At least, that was what her Russian parents thought when they came there as Jewish immigrants to try their luck. They settled in Wahoo in the state of Nebraska. This is also the place Tillie Olsen was born, before they quickly moved again. The small family moved to Omaha where Olsen spent most of her childhood. In Omaha Olsen also got the chance to go the local school. But her life wasn’t easy at all, and the fact that she was living among the city’s Jewish community didn’t make things better. At an age of 15 she dropped out of high school and took some work instead. The reason was, obviously enough, that she desperately needed money. She came from a poor family so she basically didn’t have a choice. Through the following years Tillie Olsen had several low-paid jobs. Due to her Russian background she was forced to take jobs like being a waitress, domestic worker and such things that “their people” often had to do. But even though Olsen’s life seemed bad she actually had it pretty good from time to time too. Although she dropped out of school she stayed updated by going to public libraries. And after a few years with many library visits she started to develop an interest for politics.

The outcome of her interest for politics resulted in that she became a union organizer and a political activist in the Socialist community. It was then completely natural for her to join the American Communist party in the 1930’s. Her interest in politic didn’t make her popular and the fact that she supported the “wrong” party made people “talk”. Woman just wasn’t meant to be in the politics. In 1934 Tillie Olsen got jailed while organizing a packing house workers' union. The reason was, according to the police, that she was “making too much noise”. Luckily it was only for a short period of time. However, it still made Olsen really angry and it was also an experience she was going to write about later in her life.

Under the time Olsen served in jail she made a lot of thinking. It was about time to move again. She moved to San Francisco, California. She needed a fresh start and turned over a new leaf. Olsen’s new home made her so comfortable and happy that she for the first time in her life really settled. Olsen spent much of her lifetime in this city before she once again moved to Berkeley, California. Tillie Olsen wasn’t really rich so she had to move to a simple cottage behind her youngest daughter's home. It wasn’t much, but at an age of 85 she didn’t need more either. And luckily for Tillie Olsen, she lived happily ever after until her time recently ran out on January 1, 2007.

Tillie Lerner Olsen ended her life in her 94th year at earth. She was a hard-working woman who raised and supported four children through “everyday jobs”. She spent 20 years of her life doing this. Olsen spent her spare time by going to the libraries. When she then had finished raising her kids she reconsidered her career as a writer. Once Olsen’s books were published, she became sort of a teacher/writer at prestigious schools such as Stanford University, Amherst College, Kenyon College and MIT. Tillie Olsen is now the recipient of nine honorary degrees included awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, and from the Guggenheim Foundation. Tillie Olsen started her writing at an unusual low age. In fact, she began to write when she was barely 19 years old in the beginning of 1930. Olsen wanted to write about all the challenges she had met in her life, but also the politic she was so deeply dedicated to. The funny thing is that she only had to write one single chapter. The reason was that an excerpt of it got published in a magazine which immediately led to a contract with “Random House”. Tillie Olsen then abandoned the book after working on it intermittently in 6 years. She had to abandon the book due to all the work and responsibility in the home. Many years later, in 1974, she finally published this unfinished novel as “Yonnondio: From the Thirties”. The reason why Olsen didn’t bother to continue her writing was a direct cause of all the responsibility in the home. She just hadn’t the energy nor the time to put down such an effort which the writing required. It wasn’t before she started to get old with a lot of spare time she started to write again. This is why she didn’t publish a book before 1961. And it’s also the reason why Olsen’s books mainly are based on her hard and full life as a wife and mother. **  __Character analyses__  ** The author, Tillie Olsen, has written about Anna Holbrook based on her own experience. True Anna’s eyes you can experience how difficult and though the life was in the 1920/30’s. It’s a realistic drama where Anna’s emotions sometimes can be a bit overwhelming. Her physical signs of bruises are obvious, but she keeps on living as nothing has happened. The violence has left its marks and it makes Anna weaker and weaker for each day that goes by. Without Anna the family would simply collapse. Anna Holbrook is the hard-working mother of the family. She is a small woman with rather short hair. Anna was once pretty, but her though life has changed a lot. Anna doesn’t have any education, so she probably isn’t among the smart ones either. She is also pretty strong due to all the housework. During the period when Anna is sick you can also easily tell how important she is for the family. With no one to take care of the children or the house everything in the family almost collapses. The reason is that Anna is the only one who is working in the house, and when she gets sick the family need the help of a neighbour to “survive”. Unfortunately the housework just doesn’t make her strong enough. Anna’s much stronger and more powerful husband is beating her when he is drunk. Anna has bruises all over her body, but tries to hide them as best as she can. This makes you, as a reader, feel sympathy and sorrow for her. But you soon discover that she isn’t so much better herself when she beats up her own innocent children.

Anna’s mood can change from time to time. At the most of the time she is acting like a good housewife. She is then often busy cooking food or doing laundry. But she has also her bad moments. At one point in the book, after a miscarriage, she gets very sick. She spends all her time in the bed. She doesn’t pay any attention to the house or the children. This is very unusual because normally the children are Anna’s life. She cares about them so much that she wants them to take an education (Anna thinks an education is the only way they can work they way up in the society and out of the life in poor and bad conditions). In spite of all the problems the family have, Anna sticks with them and helps everyone like a loyal servant.

All the beatings and violence Anna has suffered from her husband have changed her mentally and affected her a lot. Her attitude when it comes to violent has dramatically changed. She has reflected all the violent she has received from her husband to her children. She constantly shouts and beats them up. Her life, with no rights or fairness, is miserable. Anna doesn’t know about a better life so she has to deal with it. Over time she loses confident in herself and obey everyone, just like a slave. Anna is loyal, but unhappy. The book doesn’t really have an end so you just have to imagine yourself how it might end. My guess is that Anna one day will lose it completely.

Anna is the poor hard-working mother of the Holbrook family. She has suffered a lot of violence from her husband, and although she loves her children more than anything she ironically beat them. Anna hopes that the children one day can get a proper education so they can come out of the poor life she has experienced. She is loyal to her family and without her the family would simply collapse. **  __Summary__  ** The story, about the Holbrook family, starts in the small mining town Wyoming, where the father Jim Holbrook works in a coal mine. It’s early in the 1920’s and the family is living in poverty. When you read between the lines you quickly discover that Jim is a drunk who beats his wife, Anna, and their children. Anna does also beat the children. The most important scene comes early when Mazie (the baby) follows Jim to work. At the mine she nearly gets thrown down a mineshaft by the lunatic, Sheen McEvoy, as a sacrifice. Luckily, the night watchman comes to her rescue, and instead McEvoy slips and falls down the shaft to his death. Mazie immediately gets sick after this and the Holbrook family decides to move east in when the spring comes.

In the spring the Holbrook family travel across Nebraska and South Dakota, until their wagon gets damaged in a storm. In South Dakota they live at a tenant farm with good prospects, which, unusual enough, make the whole family optimistic and happy. It turns out the farm was the best thing that could ever happened to them. They are now healthy and well-fed, and Mazie and Will starts going on a school. Mazie is interested in an education and are getting known with the Old Man Caldwell next door, who happens by chance to have a lot of books. The situation is completely the opposite when the winter arrives. The family suddenly have no food left and when Anna becomes pregnant and ill, Jim get stricken of panic. He leaves the family before he returns after 10 days. After a though year at the farm, Jim still owes the farm owner money and they are forced to move again

After Anna’s birth the family moves to Omaha, Nebraska. They are living in a slum and the smell from a nearby slaughterhouse makes the entire Holbrook family sick. The horrible stench penetrates into every corner in their home. All Mazie can dream of is an escape from the horrors in the city to the fresh air at the farm. Due to Jim’s low income he is unable to support his family. Anna has to take a job, and even though it isn’t much the family can once again have food on the table.

The story ends during a killing heat-wave. The family are for the first time listening to the radio and then “…”. ** __ Self-evaluation __ ** When Tillie Olsen was born, she grew up in poor conditions. So it kind of seems that she has written a story more or less about herself. I don’t know why, but after reading this novel I somehow got stuck with that feeling. I think she has sort of identified Mazie as a young role of herself. They both like to read books and have focus on getting an education.

To be honest I couldn’t find a more boring book than this. It was just painful to read through it. Description after description I just got tired of it. It wasn’t any action going on at all and that made me sleepy. It was 10 pages with heavy descriptions and 1 page with action. But don’t get me all wrong because I think this was a great book. This was (and is) actually a book who got a lot of positive reviews and won many prices. It was just the fact that… well, let’s just say that it wasn’t the type of books I like to read.

You may wonder why I read the book if it was so boring. Well, I don’t know for sure, but I can tell you that it wasn’t of voluntary reasons. I was simply the lucky one to pick out a book when there was no others left. The choice stood between “Yonnondio” and a manuscript to a theatre. Yeah, I know. A tough decision with other words. And when I first began to read the book I thought it would be more exciting gradually, like most books do. I guess I was wrong… I knew the book was published as an unfinished work when I started, but when I finally came to the last page I got yet so disappointed. When it finally was some action going on it just ended with “…”. My first reaction was something like “this was a big waste of time”, but I eventually, after long thinking, realised that it may, ironically enough, been one of the “best” books I’ve ever read. Yonnondio is a book I would recommend to someone who is particularly interested in the American history, like a teacher or something like that. The reason I would recommend it to you teachers is that I think the book will give you a very realistic impression of how the life used to be in the States. The language was hard to understand with words I had never heard before. It was a challenge reading it, so I think you would find Yonnondio quite interesting.

Sources: [] (Facts about the book) [] (Facts about the author) “Yonnondio: From the thirties” (it’s a lot of information in the book about the author etc.)