The Traveling Onion by Naomi Shihab Nye

http://inwardboundpoetry.blogspot.com/2008/03/626-traveling-onion-naomi-shihab-nye.html

If you read this poem for what it literally sounds like, it's about an onion that originates from India. The writer then seems to think about the onion and enjoys the extra flavor that it adds into her food. She also adds that she could never hate the onion no matter how much the onion made her tears fall.

Reading this poem more closely, I interpreted it differently than how we had discussed in class. I feel the poem is much like a mother and child relationship. In the first line where it says that the writer thinks about how much the onion has traveled, it's much like how she could be thinking about how much a child as grew. With the second line, it's a little more different. Much like the onion is entering her stew, the child is entering her life giving her that feeling of being willing to forget all the other small forgotten miracles. The next lines that describe the onion can also be somewhat descriptive as a child. An onion has has crackly paper all around it and reveals pearly layers when it is done being peeled. A child has layers of skin but deep down, the child holds a heart of pearls and so much more. With the last line, a history is revealed when an onion is cut. A child's history would be revealed if he or she was asked questions.

The writer could never scold the onion for making her tears fall much like a parent could never scold a child who didn't know right from wrong. It's okay for the tears to fall since neither the onion nor the child never meant any harm. When the writer sits at a table commenting about the texture of the food but never about the onion itself, it could be like how a parent sits at a table with a child and explains about what's right and what's wrong but never about why it's right or wrong. For the sake of others, the onion disappears with the food much like a child will disappear when the child grows up to start his or her own life as an adult.