'“Monologue for an Onion” by Suji Kwock Kim\r'

'Poetry is a marvelous vehicle for bottoming meaning through illustration.  Kim, in â€Å"soliloquy for an Onion” uses the simple exertion of strip onion plant plant plant as a metaphor for complex and unkind relationships between peck.  She artfully weaves images and meaning between the action and the relationship it stands for.\r\nGenerally, a metaphor is a similitude between 2 un wish things.  In this poem, the speaker system unit is represented as an onion, which represents a individual who is existence victimized by the nonp areil who is clip up the onion, the stemmer.  This is the basic metaphor, but the levels go even latelyer.  The metaphor is the action of peeling the onion by, presumably, an new(prenominal) person.  This other person is the one with whom onion is in a relationship.  The action of the poem depicts the final confrontation in the relationship which ends in the tragic destruction of the onion.  It is as if the striptease, one person, actually consumes the other.\r\nFirst, the onion itself represents a person who is creation torn a fragment or torn down. The archetypical person point of view is that of the onion.  On the surface, the onion is apologizing for making the belly dancer cry.  roughly people will tear up when peeling an onion from the pungent it emits.  However, in this case, the onion is making an justification to the peeler for causing this reaction, though it back be interpreted as less than sincere.\r\nLike the onion, this first person speaker has several layers of herself that remain, for the most part and by her own choice, hidden from others’ view.  Only those that direct coating to the onion can shell to last her inward layers.  However, in this poem, the person whom the onion represents is being made to forcibly reveal her innermost layers to the peeler before she is arrive at.  She accuses the peeler from â€Å"…peeling aw ay my body, layer by layer,” (line 3).  The relationship between these two individuals is of finis importance when analyzing the poem’s presentation of the metaphor.\r\n gibe to the speaker, the peeler is intent on reaching the innermost part of her being.  Onions are composed of many layers and anyone who has raw them apart layer by layer knows what a lengthy task that is.  The speaker knows what it is that the peeler seeks; â€Å" unworthy deluded human:  you seek my heart” (line 6).  The speaker is intelligibly not ready to reveal her â€Å"secret nubble” which she claims to be a â€Å"pure union of external and in” (line 5-6).\r\nIt should be noted that union and onion differ by only one letter, mathematical indicating that the speaker feels at one with herself and her being and that the peeler is want a union, or oneness, with her by force.  Most people understand the dearest and pure, truthful emotions is not somethi ng that can be forced. This insistence by the peeler, and the references to blades and cutting actions reflect their rampageous and abusive relationship.\r\nThe berth of the peeler is very obviously one of frustration.  He has resorted to â€Å"chopping” and â€Å" cut down” as the poem progresses.  His intent is focused on getting to the core of his partner before she is ready to let him.  Here, the tears are not from the acid of the onion, but from her acidic refusal to let him get close to her. He is the type of individual that won’t take no for an answer.  He wants all of her, immediately, and is instinctive to resort to violence in order to get it.\r\nThough the reasons are not explicitly verbalize as to why she is not willing to entrust him into her heart, her scorn for his attempts are obvious.  Her apology in the initiation lines does not seem heartfelt, but rather sarcastic.  by and by all, would an onion apologize to the one th at was tearing it apart?  Probably not.  Therefore, the apology is more than likely bitter.  She wants him to voice the pain that she is feeling by his constant probing, by his â€Å"blade of fresh desire” (line 26) by his lust â€Å"to know where meaning/Lies” (lines 20-21).\r\nHowever, one could also do that many times the abused person in a relationship is made to feel like the violence was caused by her, that she made her partner anger.  In this case, the onion might have actually apologized in the past, but she is clearly at the end of her proverbial rope now.  She uses insults to refer to him, such as â€Å" sorry deluded human” (line 6), â€Å"Idiot” (line 10), and â€Å"poor fool” (line 28).  She is no longer willing to allow this intrusion, this violence.  She says â€Å"Enough is bountiful” (line 15).  She does this even even if it means her own demise.\r\nThe attitude of the onion, the speaker, is one o f coldness, as if she really were an inanimate object.  whitethornbe this pattern has repeated itself to the point that she is immune.  She does not pink or plead for him to stop, but chastises him for seeking something that he will never be able to find.  She calls his look a â€Å"fantasy” (line 12) and him a person who is â€Å" bemused in a maze of chambers, broth and love” (line 29).  This is a metaphor within a metaphor because, ironically, she is describing him as a heart, which is exactly what he is seeking from her.  She, however, has tired of his senseless, emotionally draining, and possibly even violent demands for her entire being.  She offers herself up as a sacrifice, a martyr even, but never lets him into her core.\r\nThe two individuals for which the peeling an onion metaphor are unique.  The onion is a person who has many aspects to herself, many of which she simply reserves for herself. She does not delude herself that true lo ve or perfection exists.  She comments that â€Å"You must not grieve that the earth is glimpsed/Through veils.  How else can it be seen?”  (lines 16-17), meaning that everyone looks at others through their own glasses.  Their sight will various based upon those glasses or veils.  She understands this and refuses to give in to a society which is demanding that she be an open book.\r\nThe partner, lover, in this poem does believe in these fantasies and is insisting that the speaker conform to this belief as well.  All the part he is violently attempting to plunder her soul, he is weeping.  why?  The speaker surmises that he is weeping because he realizes deep down that his quest will be futile.  She offers that â€Å" violate and tears your only signs of progress” (line 14-15).  All he has of her heart after his savage attack is â€Å"onion juice/Yellow peels, my stinging shreds” (lines 21-22) which are not signs of love and union , even though the peeler may rather have the onion’s â€Å"blood’ rather than nothing.\r\nThe peeler, then, is really the one in pieces, not the onion.  The onion knows who she is and is secure in herself.  The peeler is the one â€Å"divided at the heart” (line 28).  She accuses him of forcing love, of not fellow feeling love, and of not being true to himself, if he knows how to be true to himself:  â€Å"You are the one/In pieces.  whatever you meant to love, in meaning to /You changed yourself: you are not who you are” (line 23-24).\r\nThis poem creates a metaphor which compares peeling an onion to the destruction of a relationship between two individuals.  One of them is secret and the other demanding.  This combination can never last.  In the poem, the end is violent, ending with the â€Å" expiry” of the onion.  Sadly, all too many relationships end up this way.  Kim brilliantly uses this metaphor to portray t he destructiveness of this type of relationship.\r\n \r\n'