Naomi Shihab Nye Essay

Naomi Shihab Nye’s collection of poetry teaches the reader that the people of the Middle East are human, too. After 9/11, many people’s opinions of people from the Middle East changed significantly in a negative way. I think that a lot of people were worried about other potential attacks happening in the United States. Even now, because of recent events, many people feel threatened and they are scared of what is going to happen next. Nye’s poems remind everyone that not every person from the Middle East is threat. As she says in the introduction of her book, “A huge shadow had been cast across the lives of so many innocent people and an ancient culture’s pride” (Nye xv). Through this book, she wants to convey that they have their own lives and feel misrepresented by extremist actions.

I chose the three poems “Stone House”, “How Long Peace Takes”, and “The Address Book of a Lonely Man”. For me, “How Long Peace Takes” represented how long inner peace will take, “Stone House” is about having a space just for yourself that is personal, and “The Address Book of a Lonely Man” created a sad and nostalgic feeling. Each of these poems

I think that my poems focus in on the feeling of wanting to be loved and feel like they are included in a community. They are somewhat based off of the reaction to the end of China’s One Child Policy. When I found out that that policy was gone, my mom had shown me an article written by a woman who was adopted from China during the time that China’s One Child Policy was still in place. It was about her reaction to the end of this law and it also described other Chinese adoptees’ thoughts as well. I know a lot of girls who were adopted from China when they were really young and I think that it is interesting how different each of their feelings are about being adopted. Because of this, I wanted to write about some different reactions I have