Sarah Essay 17

Sarah Shourds

Hamilton Salsich

English 09

21 April 2009

Finding Sentiment:

An Essay on a Short Story, a Poem, and Sentiment

Most people think of onions as overpowering, bitter vegetables tand don't admire its past, but not Naomi Shihab Nye. Most people think a dead, poor, grimy [FAST] old man should be left in his dirty little town, but not Laura. Most people think that being a “nobody” is terrible and unsocial, but not Emily Dickinson [Purposeful Repetition]. Naomi Shihab Nye, Katherine Mansfield, and Emily Dickinson all inscribe the word “sentiment” into each of their writings in different ways, yet none of them have the same opinions.


TS In “The Garden Party,” Laura, the protagonist, is a very sentimental girl, and has different opinions than the rest of her family [Appositive]. SD Just down the street from Laura’s bustling [FAST] party-house, a man past away. CM No one else in Laura’s family cared because they were so preoccupied with the party, but Laura knew she needed to do something about it. CM Laura’s mother claimed to be ever so “sorry about it as [she was],” but still went on planning her huge party. SD In the mix of her mother’s words and the garden party, Laura still had the dead man on her mind. CM She knew the best thing to do was to visit the family and pay her respects, despite what her mother told her. CM The dead man’s wife guided Laura to the body, where she saw him “sleeping so soundly” and peacefully, that “[she” had to cry”. CM Seeing the blissful man “being [taken by] his dream” made her realize that she had done the right thing. CS Laura, normally and uptight, shy woman, left that house feeling even more content then she ever was, and having a better understanding of her life that “she couldn’t explain [Appositive]. CS In the end, Laura’s sentiment was a natural essence [FAST] that affected her and her brother.


TS In “The Traveling Onion,” Ms. Nye writes with a vast [FAST] amount of sentiment that you must look between the lines for. SD Ms. Nye begins her poem with a quote from a recipe book, giving the reader background information about the onion. CM She then tells about how “far the onion has traveled just to enter [her] stew”. CM Ms. Nye feels so sentimental for this poor onion that is filled with “small forgotten miracles,” and feels that “[she should] kneel and praise” the onion for its wonders it has brought the world. SD Most people look past the onions astonishing past, but Ms. Nye see’s the onion in a different perspective. CM Like Laura in “The Garden Party,” Ms. Nye doesn’t realize the onions magnificent past until “[her] knife enters [the] onion and [it] falls apart on the chopping block,” and when she does realize it’s beauty, she cannot hold back her tears. CM Ms. Nye thinks “it is right that tears fall for something small and forgotten”. CS The sentimental value of the onion was as pungent as the odor itself, and Ms. Nye feels compassion [SAT Word] for the lonely, diligent [SAT Word] onion.


TS Unlike Naomi Shihab Nye, Emily Dickinson is a little more upfront with her rendition [FAST] of sentiment. SD In the poem “I’m Nobody,” Dickinson speaks of how she is a “nobody,” but that she is happy of her loneliness. CM Many people think of being a “nobody” in a negative way, but Dickinson speaks of “how dreary [it would] be [to be a] somebody!” CM She says that living “public like a frog” would ruin the simplicity of her live, to which she holds great sentimental value to [Participle Phrase]. SD Maybe, like the definition of sentiment, Dickinson has an “excess of [emotions]”. CM Dickinson is so preoccupied with staying away from the public, that she catches herself always being with another “nobody” because they are “a pair”. CM As much as Dickinson wants to hide from the public, no matter where she is, the public is haunting her. CS Dickinson’s “excess of [emotions] is dragging her to her feet, and maybe one day she will be “public like a frog” and realize that she is a “somebody”.


Everyone holds something close to their heart with sentimental value. May it be an onion, seeing a dead, blissful man, or driving to be a “nobody”, it’s in all of us. In the short story “The Garden Party,” and in both poems “The Traveling Onion,” and “I’m Nobody,” each piece of sentimental value dearest to them is hidden in between the lines of their context, waiting to be found. Waiting to be found, sentimental value is important in everyone’s life [Participle Phrase].