“Monologue for an Onion” by Suji Kwock Kim

Poetry is a wonderful fomite for layering meaning through metaphor. Kim, in Monologue for an Onion uses the simple motion of pargon onion plant as a metaphor for complex and foul relationships between flock. She artfully weaves images and meaning between the action and the relationship it stands for.Generally, a metaphor is a comparison between two unlike things. In this song, the talker is represented as an onion, which represents a person who is be used by the whiz who is cutting up the onion, the exotic belly dancer. This is the basic metaphor, only the levels go even deeper. The metaphor is the action of peeling the onion by, presumably, anformer(a) person. This other(a) 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 end of the onion. It is as if the peeler, one person, actually consumes the other.First, the onion itself represents a person who is being torn apart or torn d induce. The first person signal of view is that of the onion. On the surface, the onion is apologizing for making the peeler cry. Most people willing tear up when peeling an onion from the acid it emits. However, in this case, the onion is making an apology to the peeler for causing this reaction, though it throw out be interpreted as less than sincere.Like the onion, this first person vocalizer has several layers of herself that remain, for the most part and by her own choice, enigmatical from others view. Only those that have got close to the onion can get to hunch her innermost 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 ready. She accuses the peeler from peeling extraneous my body, layer by layer, (line 3). The relationship between these two individuals is of utmost sizeableness when analyzing the poems presentation of the metaphor.According to the speaker, the peeler is intent on reaching the innermost part of her being. Onions are composed of some layers and anyone who has naked them apart layer by layer knows what a lengthy undertaking that is. The speaker knows what it is that the peeler seeks Poor deluded human you seek my heart (line 6). The speaker is clearly non ready to reveal her secret core which she claims to be a pure union of outside and in (line 5-6).It should be observe that union and onion differ by only one letter, potential indicating that the speaker timbres at one with herself and her being and that the peeler is seeking a union, or oneness, with her by force. Most people understand the wonder and pure, fair emotions is not something that can be forced. This insistence by the peeler, and the references to blades and cutting actions resile their violent and abusive relationship.The attitude of the peeler is very obviously one of frustration. He has resorted to chopping and slashing as the poem pro gresses. His intent is focused on getting to the core of his partner before she is ready to let him. Here, the crying 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 wont control no for an answer. He wants all of her, immediately, and is free to resort to violence in order to get it.Though the reasons are not explicitly verbalise as to why she is not willing to allow him into her heart, her scorn for his attempts are obvious. Her apology in the opening lines does not seem heartfelt, but or else sarcastic. After all, would an onion apologize to the one that was tearing it apart? in all likelihood not. Therefore, the apology is more than likely bitter. She wants him to share the pain that she is feeling by his constant probing, by his blade of fresh desire (line 26) by his crave to know where meaning/Lies (lines 20-21).However, one could also respond that many time 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 silly deluded human (line 6), Idiot (line 10), and poor fool (line 28). She is no longer willing to allow this intrusion, this violence. She says Enough is enough (line 15). She does this even even if it means her own demise.The attitude of the onion, the speaker, is one of coldness, as if she really were an inanimate object. Perhaps this conception has repeated itself to the point that she is immune. She does not beg or plead for him to stop, but chastises him for seeking something that he will never be able to find. She calls his count a fantasy (line 12) and him a person who is lost in a maze of chambers, blood 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 tire 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.The 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 love or perfection exists. She comments that You must not grieve that the world is glimpsed/ finished veils. How else can it be seen? (lines 16-17), meaning that everyone looks at others through their own glasses. Their sight will different 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.The partner, lover, in this poem does hope in these fantasies and is insisting that the speaker conform to this belief as well. completely the while he is vio lently 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 ruin and tears your only signs of progress (line 14-15). All he has of her heart after his savage attack is onion juice/ yellowed peels, my stinging shreds (lines 21-22) which are not signs of love and union, even though the peeler may rather have the onions blood rather than nothing.The 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 divided at the heart (line 28). She accuses him of forcing love, of not collar love, and of not being true to himself, if he knows how to be true to himself 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).This poem creates a metaphor which compares peeling an onion to the ravaging of a relationship between two indi viduals. One of them is secret and the other demanding. This combination can never last. In the poem, the end is violent, ending with the death of the onion. Sadly, all too many relationships end up this way. Kim brilliantly uses this metaphor to portray the destructiveness of this type of relationship.