The author that I chose to analyze as far as identity is Naomi Shihab Nye. The author is a woman who is multicultural. Naomi Shihab is Palestinian and white. Her culture is tougher on women in terms of abiding by their culture. Naomi is aware of her culture.
In Naomi’s poem Blood, she speaks of the qualities of a 'true Arab' while being torn between two forces, her American half and her Palestinian half, whose home country is in turmoil. Nye's poetry, and Blood specifically, are a product of Nye’s Palestinian family history and her struggle to choose between her birth country, America, and her war ravished native country, Palestine. Throughout her poems, she shows feelings of confusion and anger that many people of other cultures can identify with.
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I believe that Naomi Shihab Nye sees herself as being more interdependent, and I think that Naomi would agree with Jen’s statement that women tend to fall towards interdependence more. When looking at the definition of interdependent, it means dependent on each other. Within Nye’s poetry, she examines her place within two cultures. Her poem title, Blood, alone suggests family and lineage. The title 'blood' implies that she is questioning which aspects of her life are inherited and which are brought on by political and cultural forces. The first line of Blood is as follows, “A true Arab knows how to catch a fly in his hands.” Naomi Shihab is heavily influenced by her father and his ancestral roots. She is constantly torn between the two cultures. For instance, in the poem Blood, she states, “what flag can we wave.?” Not only is Naomi a part of two different cultures, but she’s also a woman. From personal experience, I too am part of a different culture (Chaldean, born in Iraq), and the culture is strict but even more strict on females. If Naomi was to separate from their community it would cause lots of imbalance within the family. In most traditional Arab families, the females are to obey the men. For instance, in my household, if I wanted to go to a party or even hang with friends, I have to ask my dad for permission, and if he says “no”, it was a no and there is no arguing it. Furthermore, the men are allowed to move out of the house, but the females have to wait until they are married to do so. If Naomi is to strictly follow the traditions of a Palestinian household, she will most likely just live a sheltered life. Personally, I do not think it’s a bad thing. Having to strictly abide by my family’s rules has greatly influenced me in the sense that I do not act out. A lot of teens spend their college years drinking and partying, but my culture has kept me away from that scene, which honestly saved me the trouble of experiencing any of the consequences that come about from partying. Lastly, in stanzas 4-5, this is referring to the tragedy of 9/11. Nye views this event as a terrible representation of Arab culture. She says, “it is too much for him, neither of his two languages can reach it. “The event is too large to fathom to the point that even with the two languages, neither one of them can encompass the pain of it, especially when Arabs are constantly blamed for the tragedy. Events like this make it difficult to identify with your own culture.
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