Nye’s poetry directly reflects her own perspectives on humanity. She seems to strongly believe in cultural connection and the elimination of stereotyping. Being that she is a Palestinian American, I feel her writing can express a greater truth since she has experienced ethnic stereotyping and disconnection on a first-hand basis. In her poem My Father and the Fig Tree, she discussed her father’s lack of connection with his Palestinian culture. He claims that Palestine had the greatest figs and since his childhood years in that country, he has yet to have a fig just as good since his move to Texas. Her dad repeatedly tells stories in which he incorporates the fig tree. By always mentioning fig trees it shows that her dad cannot let go of his culture nor should he. The dad is determined to feel equally connected to his home in Texas and his Palestinian culture. He believes that in order to feel the connection he needs to plant his own fig tree. Once he plants his own fig tree he begins to feel less split between the two cultures. I believe Nye wants us to understand how difficult immigrating to a new culture can be. It is more than just a move – it is a new beginning and in often times a drastic change in lifestyle. People want to feel a sense of belonging and in the case of immigration that is not always an easy feeling to develop.

In Nye’s poem Grandmother, the subject of stereotyping is brought to attention. The idea of stereotyping does not consume the entire poem, but rather it was an aspect that caught my attention. Many ideas can be taken from this poem; however, I feel that stereotyping played an important factor in the poem. Nye greatly respects her grandmother. She sees her as a wise, religious, knowledgeable and well-respected woman. The community around the grandmother always went to her for advice or for a healing touch. She was very experienced and had seen a lot in her day, which made her a very well-rounded individual. After Nye expressed her grandmother’s impressive talents she mentions the grandmother’s inability to read. I believe that by putting her greatest characteristics first she was trying to convey that her being illiterate was rather an insignificant part of who she was. In the United States it is crucial to be literate. If you cannot read then your chance at success is very limited. Our country may see Nye’s grandmother as unimportant and worthless primarily based on her inability to read; however, if we focused on her talents rather than her flaws then we would see she is a very valuable individual. It is important to see someone for who they are and not for what they know. We focus too much on everyone’s imperfections. We would all be better off if we saw everyone’s talents before their inadequacies.

Nye is painting a picture of life and how she understands it. She sees the world as disconnected, but is confident that we can eventually all connect and appreciate one another. Her poetry expresses the great potential humanity has to arrive at peace. Our world has become very diverse and violent and as she sees it we must bring all our differences together and create some similarities.