Shoulders – Analysis

The poem starts by introducing a character, a male figure, a man who crosses the street
and watches everything carefully so that nothing happens to his sleeping son. The boy is on his
shoulder, a very well-known place where you keep your loved ones. Thus, the representative
theme is the care of a father towards his son and, especially, the care of people towards each
other which ensures survival. Through the words "FRAGILE, HANDLE WITH CARE", the
importance of the weight that the man carries and of which he must take the greatest care is
emphasized, considering that the child is sensitive. The atmosphere characterized by the bad,
rainy weather, highlights the dangerous environment in which people will live if they do not try
to care about each other and offer help every time they can. The lyrics want to prove that
humanity will not get far with indifference and they associate the caring father with every reader
"we're not willing to do what he's doing". The poem ends with a harsh, sad tone, which aims to
draw people's attention to the behavior and feelings that make the difference between us and
objects, the feelings that make us human.
All boys are influenced by their fathers. Boys learn, first of all, to be men from their
father, because he is the main male model that underlies the formation of personality. Often, the
father-son relationship is not so visible. But that does not make it unreal or unimportant. When
children are in their places, fed, clothed, reconciled with themselves and the world, happy and
especially healthy, parents are calm and productive. It is said that productivity is conditioned not
only by internal factors, personality, character, but also by external ones, events, natural
phenomena, novelties. The child's attachment relationship with his father is the second very
important relationship in his life. This relationship cannot really be replaced by anyone. The
father is the one who completes the identification process of the child, the one who brings the
second half, the child thus managing to create his own whole. A secure relationship with the
father will help the child to develop harmoniously emotionally. If the father is not present, it will
negatively affect the child's subsequent life. It will be more difficult for him to orient himself
positively towards his life, to create clear boundaries between himself and those around him and
to pursue his own needs. The same happens at the level of humanity. If people are alone and not
interested in each other, nothing will go well, because only by working together success and
happiness will appear.
 The human must be in relationship with others. If he is unrelated to the other, he will
become mad. And, in fact, this is the only valid definition of madness, a person who is absolutely
cut off from any relationship. Compared to empathy, which in ordinary circumstances appears as
a human virtue, indifference, in the same natural circumstances, manifests itself as a human flaw,
because it consists in impassivity, insensitivity or coldness to the thoughts or feelings of people.
Indeed, while empathy means the transposition of the one who interacts with another in the skin
of the interlocutor, of the one with whom he interacts, indifference consists in maintaining one's
own state and remaining in affective inertia. The empathetic man metamorphoses emotionally
and reaches the same wavelength as those with whom he comes in contact, while the careless
man rejects or does not accept the emotional transformation in a way similar to that of the
interlocutor.
A real world example that supports the author's view could be represented by the
situation in which a man faints on the street. He may not be able to ask for help, but what is most
important is that those who would stop to offer something or at least call for help are far too few.
That is why this poem conveys a multitude of penetrating feelings and feelings that are based,
unfortunately, on today's life, not to mention wars. People have become so indifferent and only
interested in themselves that most pass each other without looking up from the phone or can even
pretend to be looking in another direction. People have come to avoid contact just so they don't
have to help. The writer invites readers to identify with the character in the lyrics, in order to
make them change something about them and not expect changes only from those around them.
She wants every man to begin to be able to fight not only for himself and to keep close those
who need help, because only in this way will humanity evolve.
Naomi Shihab Nye wrote this poem in 1952 but, unfortunately, it is very current and
there are certainly many other situations that would fit the description. This poem is a call
addressed to everyone, in the form of verses that attract people's attention not to ignore anyone
who goes through their lives
 Works cited:
Naomi Shihab Nye, "Shoulders" from Red Suitcase. Copyright © 1994 by Naomi Shihab
Nye. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of BOA
Editions, Ltd., www.boaeditions.org.