Tillie Olsen: 11-03-1977

Abstract

Olsen soliloquizes about her mother, and about the power of faith in humanity that Olsen inherited from her mother. Olsen feels an affinity with Van Gogh in her effort to bear witness through art to the dignity of struggling workers, and talks about her conviction that only through struggle does humanity progress. Olsen does not feel bitter having lived in poverty, but neither does she now feel fulfilled having risen out of poverty.