The Traveling Onion

As Professor Corrigan stated, "reading is more than looking at words in sequence." Analyzing literature is part attitude and part technique. 

My first impression after reading The Traveling Onion was very different after discussing the poem as a group. Initially, I thought the author was talking about a literal onion. I was amazed at what a huge deal the writer was making about a mere vegetable. 

  After reading the poem through once I wrote " I found this to be very interesting and in depth for something as insignificant as an onion. I am still trying to understand a deeper meaning that the author might have been trying to portray." 

     " An onion falls apart on the chopping block, a history revealed." 

I didn't understand exactly what kind of history an onion could hold at first. 

After discussing the poem as a class, my  view definitely changed. After talking about the poem's content and observing an actual onion being chopped into pieces, it was easier to visualize and understand the poem itself. 

I began to understand the meaning behind "a history revealed." As I saw the onion being chopped up and its individual layers being divided, I began to realize the history and story every single thing holds behind its exterior. We, as people, all have a story to tell. 

Towards the end of the poem Nye states, " And I would never scold the onion for causing tears. It is right that tears fall for something small and forgotten. How at meal, we sit to eat, commenting on texture of meat or herbal aroma but never on the translucence of onion, now limp, now divided."

It reminded me how easily we can look past or ignore people who have such amazing stories and testimonies to share. 

I definitely learned that first impressions can be very misleading from this experiment.