Naomi Shihab Nye free essay sample

Anna Speed Abernathy Honors 9th Grade Literature March 2, 2011 Kindness Critical Analysis Kindness -Naomi Shihab Nye Before you know what kindness really is You must lose things, Feel the future dissolve in a moment Like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, What you counted and carefully saved, All this must go so you know How desolate the landscape can be Between the regions of kindness. How you ride and ride Thinking the bus will never stop, The passengers eating maize and chicken Will stare out the window forever. Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness, You must travel where the Indian in a white ponchoLies dead by the side of the road. You must see how this could be you, How he too was someone Who journeyed through the night with plans And the simple breath that kept him   alive. Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, You must know sorry as the other deepest thing. We will write a custom essay sample on Naomi Shihab Nye or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page You must wake up with sorrow. You must speak to it till your voice Catches the thread of all sorrows And you see the size of the cloth. Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore, Only kindness that ties your shoes And sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread, Only kindness that raises its headFrom the crowd of the world to say It is I you have been looking for, And then goes with you everywhere Like a shadow or a friend. Colombia. Do you know what kindness really is? The poem â€Å"Kindness†, by Naomi Shihab Nye, is a deep and meaningful poem that uses personification, free verse rhythm, simile, and alliteration to bring out the message that society does not fully understand kindness until one looses something, and this can be seen throughout American history as well. Critics Pamela Steed Hill and Anna Maria Hong give their opinions on Nye’s work. Each explains what they personally think it means. Nye thinks that kindness is one of the most important things in society today. To begin, the theme is evident throughout the text. The main theme as a whole is that kindness is not completely understood or appreciated by society. People sometimes become blinded to life’s opportunities to kindness, or kindness itself. Some people would agree that it is one of the most treasured and hard to come by values. Compared to the saying â€Å"you don’t know what you have until it’s gone†, the author also believes that one may have to lose something, or even everything, to understand what kindness really means.Society can become too focused on the future and reaching goals instead of stopping and smelling the roses along the way. Nye uses straightforward language to make points so that readers can fully understand the meaning. Her use of the word â€Å"you† refers to a universal you. That means that she is talking to whoever is reading this poem at whatever time. It doesn’t matter who the reader is. Kindness is more complex than it seems, and she uses poetic devices to emphasize that point. To begin this point, Naomi Shihab Nye uses personification, free verse rhythm, simile, and alliteration in this poem to give readers her full message.Much personification is used to show that kindness can change a lot of things in your life if you let it. For example, â€Å"Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore, Only kindness that ties your shoes† (Nye lines 27-28) explains that once you truly understand what kindness is, everything you do is done because you want to be kind. â€Å"Only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say It is I you have been looking for,† (Nye Lines 30-33). This means that even when you feel like no one else is there for you, you can still be kind.It will never turn away from you. â€Å"And then it goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a friend† (Nye Lines 33-34) helps add to this point. Even in the world’s hardest times, people can still find ways to be kind. The next poetic device is free verse. Nye decided to use free verse for the rhyme scheme of this poem. It creates a subtle rhythm and plain language to make a point. Instead of being focused on the flow and rhyme of the poem, she makes sure that readers listen to the theme. Simile is used a few times throughout the text as well.For example, â€Å"feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth† (Nye lines 3-4) just goes back to part of the theme that says that one must lose something in order for them to view things differently. The salt in a weakened broth refers to the way that the future seems to slip out from your fingers. Just like when salt dissolves and makes all the difference in a weak soup, kindness can make all the difference in ones future. The last poetic devise is alliteration. Alliteration repeats the first consonant sounds in words to keep the readers interested and put emphasis on a point. Feel the future† (Nye line 3) and â€Å"held in your hand† (Nye line 6) is some of this poems alliteration. It simply adds effect to how one should really feel kindness. Things can seem to slip right out of your hands but kindness will always be there. Lastly, critics Pamela Steed Hill and Anna Maria Hong give their opinions on this poem. Hill begins by saying that Nye knows that kindness is not always plainspoken and accessible, even though she speaks directly and easily to readers. People cannot only read this poem, but have to learn from their experiences in order to fully understand Nye’s point.Therefore, Hill thinks that when people go through hard times, they understand the gift of kindness, no matter how small it may be. Anna Maria Hong says similar things to Pamela Steed Hill. Hong says that Nye offers that instead of being a random act, kindness is received after going through certain experiences. She also enjoys the use of metaphors and personification. One great point that Hong makes is that she believes that the Indian on the bus refers to feeling uncomfortable or foreign in an environment. Most people look out the window instead of embracing it. If this poem was compared to an event in real life, one might use an example of going to a new school. When a kid or teenager enters a new territory, they may not feel socially accepted at first. It is human nature that making friends is not an easy task. That is why other peers should be kind toward new student. You never know what kind of friend you might get unless you try. However, most people don’t know what being a new student is like unless they have actually been one themselves. In conclusion, Naomi Shihab Nye has written a truly meaningful poem about the meaningfulness of kindness. Once one knows what kindness really is, you will always be reminded of it. However, Nye says that you must loose things in order to gain the full feeling of it. She uses personification, free verse rhythm, simile, and alliteration to make all of the most important points in this poem. Pamela Steed Hill and Anna Maria Hong give their opinions, and overall, enjoyed this poem. Students should socially accept and be kind toward a new student as well. Little situations like that can help people feel kindness. It is one of the most valued traits in society, and Naomi Shihab Nye does an excellent job in explaining that.