Scarlet's Essay

Scarlet Caruso
English 9
Mr. Salsich
4/26/09

SENTIMENTAL-NESS:
An essay on a story, an adjective, a poem and a vegetable

One dictionary’s definition for the word sentimental is “having an excess of sentiment” or an excess of emotion. Everyone has something that makes him or her feel sentimental. Most of the poems and stories we have read this year have had “an excess of sentiment” to them. People find many different things sentimental. If you look close enough you can find “an excess of sentiment” in almost anything.

In “The Traveling Onion” by Naomi Shihab Nye, there are a lot of sentimental feelings. She talks about the onion as if it was a great hero or politician. She, describing the onion, uses a lot more feeling than most people do when speaking about vegetables. (PARTICIPLE) Therefore, she uses a lot of sentiment. Another example of sentiment in her poem is when she talks about, “never scold[ing] the onion.” Of course no one would ever scold an onion but she is so touched by the simple beauty that she gets emotional. The onion, smelly and many-layered, makes her feel something so she becomes sentimental. (APPOSITIVE) Most people do not feel inspired by vegetables but Naomi Shihab Nye does.

Most poets do not mind being sentimental and their poems would not be very good without it. Emily Dickens, an exemplary (SAT WORD) poet, is very comfortable with being emotional. (APPOSITIVE) For example, she has an excess of emotion when talking about being a “nobody.” “I’m nobody!” she shouts as if it is a strange, alien thing to be. When talking about being nobody she gets sentimental. Another example is when she talks about “how dreary [it would] be to be somebody!” She speaks about this with such an excess of emotion. As if being “public like a frog” would be so incredibly terrible. Emily Dickinson would not be the great poet she is without the sentimental feelings she has.

People have different opinions on when and when not to be sentimental. For example, in “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield, Laura, the main character, feels sentiment towards a mundane (SAT WORD) woman who has just lost her husband. “That poor woman” cries Laura.
Her sister Jose thinks that Laura is being ridiculous. Jose is angry with Laura’s excess of emotion and says, “You won't bring a drunken workman back to life by being sentimental.” Another example of the right time to be sentimental is when Laura sees the dead workman lying in his bed. As she runs out of the house, crying, her brother finds her and gives her a hug asking, “Was it awful?”(PARTICIPLE) He fully understands why, in this situation, she would feel melancholy. He realizes that this is a time to feel sentimental. Some people might think it ridiculous to cry when someone you don’t know has died but Laura feels differently and never holds back her feelings


A lot of literature would not be as great if it weren't for the sentimentalism. The excess of feeling makes the poems and stories much better. Everyone has something to make them feel sentimental. For some people it’s a dead body or being famous and for some it may just be an onion.