Monologue for an Onion

Monologue for an Onion

By Suji Kwock Kim

I don’t mean to make you cry.
I mean nothing, but this has not kept you
From peeling away my body, layer by layer,

The tears clouding your eyes as the table fills
With husks, cut flesh, all the debris of pursuit.
Poor deluded human: you seek my heart.

Hunt all you want. Beneath each skin of mine
Lies another skin: I am pure onion–pure union
Of outside and in, surface and secret core.

Look at you, chopping and weeping. Idiot.
Is this the way you go through life, your mind
A stopless knife, driven by your fantasy of truth,

Of lasting union–slashing away skin after skin
From things, ruin and tears your only signs
Of progress? Enough is enough.

You must not grieve that the world is glimpsed
Through veils. How else can it be seen?
How will you rip away the veil of the eye, the veil

That you are, you who want to grasp the heart
Of things, hungry to know where meaning
Lies. Taste what you hold in your hands: onion-juice,

Yellow peels, my stinging shreds. You are the one
In pieces. Whatever you meant to love, in meaning to
You changed yourself: you are not who you are,

Your soul cut moment to moment by a blade
Of fresh desire, the ground sown with abandoned skins.
And at your inmost circle, what? A core that is

Not one. Poor fool, you are divided at the heart,
Lost in its maze of chambers, blood, and love,
A heart that will one day beat you to death.

Summary of Monologue for an Onion

• Popularity of “Monologue for an Onion”: Written by Kim, Korean American poet-playwright, “Monologue for an Onion” is a satirical poetic piece. The poem displays the simple action of peeling an onion as a metaphor for the hurtful and complex relationships of human beings. Kim beautifully weaves images by playing with the words to connect the readers to her unique ideas. The poem, however, touched pinnacle of success due to the representation of a kitchen object in an exciting way.
• “Monologue for an Onion” As a Representative of Logic: This seemingly mocking piece takes us deep into the writer’s imagination. It began when the onion speaker chastised the readers for peeling back its layers. The peeling fills their eyes with tears, but they continue to seek the onion’s heart. To the speaker, the peeler is doing a deluding task as he is not going to find the truth he is looking for. The onion also tells the reader that no matter how much time they spend doing this futile job, my skin remains the same. In the fourth stanza, the speaker compares the peeler’s search to the search for humankind. The speaker equates the search for an onion’s center to the search for truth in the world.
  Also, she addresses people as fools who try to search for the fact that it never exists. As the poem continues, she says that many people waste their precious time seeking things that they do not even understand. To her, man must know that truths are always veiled. She also suggests that people must gather themselves despite taking the onion apart. She ends the poem with an ironic remark that humanity has willingly brought destruction upon itself.
• Major Themes in “Monologue for an Onion”: Mockery, pain, the search for truth, and vanity are the poem’s major themes. This poem presents the speaker as an onion being chopped and peeled by an unknown person. The onion tries to stop the person from doing an irrational act, but the person prefers continuing his job. On the surface, the poem may seem humorous or nonsensical. However, on a deeper level, it presents man’s violent nature. The onion and the person seem to be at war. The person uses brutal force to kill the onion, while the onion tries to defend itself using logic and philosophy. Onion’s logic and reasoning portray man as a fool. It thinks that man can never understand the true meaning of love. Therefore, in many places in the poem, the onion attempts to stop the person, while the man tries to reach the center of the onion, hoping he may find something. Unfortunately, he does not see anything; the onion remains the same inside out.

Analysis of Literary Devices Used in Monologue for an Onion

literary devices beautifully connect the readers to the writer’s ideas. Suji Kwock Kim used some literary devices in the poem whose analysis is as follows.

1. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /e/ in “Hunt all you want. Beneath each skin of mine” and the sound of /o/ in “Of things, hungry to know where meaning.”
2. Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /t/ in “You must not grieve that the world is glimpsed” and the sound of /n/ in “Of things, hungry to know where meaning.”
3. Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break; rather, it rolls over to the next line. For example;

“Of lasting union–slashing away skin after skin
From things, ruin and tears your only signs
Of progress? Enough is enough.”

4. Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. The poet used imagery in this poem, such as; “You must not grieve that the world is glimpsed”, “Lies. Taste what you hold in your hands: onion-juice” and “Yellow peels, my stinging shreds. You are the one.”
5. Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between objects that are different in nature. The poet used human nature as an extended metaphor in the poem to show how people exploit others once they gain power.
6. Rhetorical Question: A Rhetorical question is a question that is not asked to receive an answer; it is just posed to make the point clear. The poet posed rhetorical questions in the sixth stanza of the poem to put emphasis on her point, such as, “Through veils. How else can it be seen?”
7. Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from the literal meanings. “The poem shows symbols, such as power, the search for truth, vanity, and philosophy.

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in Monologue for an Onion

Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is an analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.

1. Diction: The poem shows descriptive diction having rhetorical devices, symbolism, and impressive images.
2. Free Verse: Free verse is a type of poetry that does not contain patterns of rhyme or meter. This is a free verse poem with no strict rhyme or meter.
3. Tercet: A tercet is a three-lined stanza borrowed from Biblical Hebrew poetry. Here, each stanza is tercet

Quotes to be Used

The following lines are useful for talking about the dismal condition of mankind, who runs after nothingness.

“Not one. Poor fool, you are divided at the heart,
Lost in its maze of chambers, blood, and love,
A heart that will one day beat you to death.”