"All the world is a-cryen": Gender Hierarchy, Capitalism, and Labor in Yonnondio

Abstract

Tillie Olsen's Yonnondio contains an argument for a woman's role in domestic labor and how patriarchal and capitalist beliefs harm families, both physically and psychologically. Olsen's fictional work attempts to reclaim women's bodies from unpaid, domestic labor. The events depicted in the text criticize how women's roles seem entirely composed of domestic labor; taking care of the children, cooking, cleaning, and satisfying their husband's desires. The text simultaneously shows how capitalism, and the poverty it creates, causes families to behave negatively to one another losing respect for each other because of how the value of money plays a critical role in the lives of the poor.