1. Ancestors, parents, children. The connections and oppositions among these groups often provide interesting material for poets. In the work of ONE poet you have studied, examine the means by which such relationships have been explored.
In many different kinds of literature, the connection between family are showed, from a loving relationship to a bad relationship, each family has their own way to get along. Most of the stories I read included elements about family, many of them are about the barriers the elders try to dissolve with the younger generation. However, in Naomi Shihab Nye's poetry, she used short but meaningful lines to tell the readers about her family, from her father to the grandmother that she is not familiar with. My Father and The Fig Tree is a poem she wrote about her father and his stubborn on his belief. In the line, "later when they caught and arrested him, his pockets were full of figs", it shows how his father have been trying to face every situation using his own belief. The father has always been wanting to prove to the daughter about his belief and what it really is. In the last section of this poem, she wrote "He took me out back to the new yard.There, in the middle of Dallas, Texas,a tree with the largest, fattest,the sweetest fig in the world" this is a part where he finally found what he has been looking for and immediately called his daughter to see what it is. Also, in the poem Blood from Naomi as well, she tells about his father. "He said that's what a true Arab would say", therefore, we could infer that the father has been wanting to teach Naomi how and what a true Arab is, having their own identity instead of what others might think about them. They have a close relationship and also a relationship that is interesting. What the father gave to her daughter are principles on how she should live and how she should sense the world. As an adult knowing more about the society's stereotype, the father also chose to protect Naomi in a special way by telling her that they are "shooting star", instead of labeling themselves by ethics.
In another poem Naomi Shihab Nye wrote, The Words Under The Words is more alike the theme of ancestors. Even though she did not live with her grandmother, but through the details she observed, she understood her grandmother, we could know the fact from these lines "My grandmother’s hands recognize grapes, the damp shine of a goat’s new skin", and "My grandmother’s voice says nothing can surprise her". Naomi knows what her grandmother have experienced also through what her father might have told her.
Many of Naomi's poetries are about her ancestors' belief and how she connects to it; Also how it all affects her way of thinking. Starting when she was little, she get all these ideas about life and small parts of her original Aran culture through his father and even from her grandmother that she don't see often. Since it is a poem, it is more interesting to think and conjecture about comparing to a long story giving out all the details. Naomi's poetry shows how her connection with the family is important as an immigrant from a very different country than U.S.A., how important it is for an elder to provide the correct knowledge and perspective for a young girl to keep her innocent from people's peculiar judgement. Also how his father chooses to speak and tell her about their orignal culture instead of changing the familt into a American family to fit into a new place for settlement.
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