The Gaza Conflict as Shown Through a Childs Poem

During 2014, there was a conflict in the Middle East that was labeled the Gaza conflict.
Despite what the media showed, the conflict was just as bad as any other war or conflict that has
happened. In the poem For Mohammed Zeid of Gaza, Age 15 Naomi Shihab Nye criticizes the
medias use of soft language, through her use of personification and comparisons.
Nyes personification of the bullet is used to criticize the soft language when describing
the gaza conflict. During the conflict there is a misfire, a friendly fire incident, that when
covered, the media showed it as being an accident, but a bullet [has] no innocence. (18) The
personification of the bullet shows how the purpose of this bullet was to kill. It was created to
kill, but the media acted as though the bullet has some profound innocence that excuses it from
being what caused the death of a man. The media is attempting to soften the situation and
dismiss the event, almost as though it never happened, despite the fact that the bullet only had
one purpose: to kill. This bullet was never the friend of life.(19) The bullet has only one
purpose, and that purpose is up to the will of the person who shoots it. But personifying it to say
that it was never the friend of life, shows how a bullet could never save a life, only end it. The
media wishes to act as though the bullet had the choice to NOT kill someone, softening the
situation. Since this bullet killed a man, it should not be granted immunity (21) but instead
should be seen as a bullet that has killed a man. For the bullet to be granted immunity, that would
cause the bullet to become like a person, in that only a person is affected by the law.
Furthermore, the bullet being granted immunity means that it would not be held accountable for
its actions, despite the fact that it has killed a man. The media however wishes to grant to the
bullet immunity to do all these things, even though that hides the truth of the situation from the

publics eyes. Nyes criticism of the medias soft language shows through her use of
personification of the bullet.
Nye continues to criticize the media through her use of comparisons of bullet. The bullet,
being an inanimate object, cannot be like a worried cat. (2) The bullet isnt scared of anything,
because it cant be. The bullet doesnt have control over its purpose, because it isnt able to. The
bullet has only one purpose, and that is the purpose designated to it by the person who uses it, so
the seeing the media try and act as though the bullet was not aimed to kill someone, when thats
simply not possible. Similarly, the bullet was man-made and so could not be [like] a pecan (6)
or could not be random like in nature. The bullet could not happen to be shot out of the gun, it
had to be purposefully shot out of the gun, at someone or something, despite how the media tries
to act as though it was due to random chance. No matter what, the bullet had to have been shot
for a reason, and couldnt have been due to random events. This bullet could not not be a
humble pebble (10) for that would require the bullet to be able to hold itself accountable and
so humble itself for its actions. However, the bullet ISNT alive, and so it cannot be humbled, but
will instead always have the blood of murder on it. No matter what the media says about the
bullet, the truth is there, and should not be sugarcoated.
Nyes criticisms of the bullet through personification and comparisons show how Nye is
upset with the medias soft spoken language about the bullet, trying to dismiss its actions as
though it was simply an accident. The gaza conflict is a very in depth conflict, and while its hard
to completely understand, the media shouldnt be making it harder to understand by trying to
fluff the language up, but should instead be trying to show the truth of the situation at hand and
be trying to inform the public of these truths as best they can.