My Interpretation of "The Traveling Onion"

 This poem by Naomi Shihab Nye is about  an onion. The author comtemplates the importance and beauty of the onion and the fact that it is often overlooked and forgotten. Of the onion she says, "crackly paper peeling on the drainboard, pearly layers in smooth agreement, the way knife enters onion and onion falls
apart on the chopping block." In these lines Nye is describing the onion in an admiring, dreamlike fashion,
indicating the fact that she holds great respect for this particular vegetable.
At first, it appears that the only way to interpret this poem is as a praise to the onion. However, The Traveling Onion is a deceptively simple work, or a work that appears simple to understand on the surface but in reality has a deeper meaning that has to be searched out. The poem needs to be seriously interpreted in order to discover even just a single meaning that may be hidden behind the obvious one. The phrase at the end of the first stanza, "and onion falls apart on the chopping block, a history revealed, " doesn't quite make sense. What history is "revealed" and why does the onion coming apart have anything to do with its history? There are other phrases in this poem that are just as complex and, therefore, one needs to make a valiant attempt to interpret the poem.
 To me, this poem seems to be communicating the fact that some of the most important things and people of this world frequently go unnoticed. They perform a special or needed work in our society but rarely are acknowledged with the recognition they deserve.  I draw this conclusion from the phrase, "I could kneel
and praise all small forgotten miracles." These "miracles" are most likely not the supernatural kind that we're
so familiar with. More than likely these miracles are the everyday things we take for granted: the laughter of
children, a cool summer day, a convicting chapel sermon, the knowledge found in God's Word. All these and
more could be classified as the "small forgotten miracles" that Nye is referring to. They are apart of our everyday existence and add something special to our world, but they frequently go unnoticed or, if noticed, don't receive the appreciation they deserve.
The onion, the central object in this poem, is both a representative of the unnoticed and an unnoticed object itself.  Many of us eat onions on a regular basis in some form but rarely, if ever, think about or consider them in any real depth. It adds flavor and a kick to various foods, such as soup, but unless it's an onion dish, most people probably don't pay attention to this vegetable. Nye says, "How at meal, we sit to eat, commenting on
texture of meat or herbal aroma but never on the translucence of onion."  Here, she openly acknowledges the fact that while other foods receive the benefit of compliments and recognization, the onion is not discussed.
In the second stanza Nye says "It is right that tears fall for something small and forgotten." Nye is speaking of the onion but it's very possible that she could also mean something more. The pungent smell of onions does cause one's eyes to well, however, the first half of the phrase, "It is right that tears fall," doesn't seem to be conducive with this fact. As forgotten as the onion might be, it isn't so important that someone would shed
tears over it. For it to be "right" for someone to cry over something it has to be something extremely important. Therefore, the tears must be for sadness or grief over the lose of something more important than an onion. The second half of the phrase, "for something small and forgotten," is also speaking of the onion.
However, one can make the conjecture that these lines might have a deeper meaning. Yes, the onion may be small and forgotten, but so are the disabled, so are the sick. The onion, as well as being unnoticed itself, might also be a representative of other unnoticed things.
So, why should any of this matter to you? It matters to you, and to me, because all of us, at one time or another, have experienced the pain of going unnoticed or unappreciated by those around us. We've operated
on the fringes of society while people take little or no notice of us. We've done nice things for other people
and were offered inadequate gratitude, or worse, none at all. What's more, we've acted that way toward other people. We deliberately avoid them or find ways to get out of interacting with them. We see the elderly man at the store who needs help and turn away. A loved one needs talk to us about something important and we refuse to acknowledge them. My interpretation of The Traveling Onion matters because it grabs the essence of the poem: The fact that we oftentimes ignore, whether intentionally or unintentionally, the things and people that should be the most regarded by us. The poem itself is  insightful because it uses an ordinary item to explain a great truth. Like I said earlier, most people don't take notice of onions. They add flavor to a
variety of foods but don't receive much recognition because their filmy, transparent  substance causes them to almost disappear and be superseded by whatever else is in the dish. Therefore, since we don't see the onion
we can't comphrend its worth in the overall dish.