Neil Heims is a writer and teacher living in Paris. In this essay, he argues that the poet represents her feelings by comparing herself to an onion.

Because onions do not talk, it is reasonable to deduce that “Monologue for an Onion,” which features a talking onion, is using the onion as an imaginative substitute for a person, who can talk. Consequently, there is a central utterance that, despite the title, has been left unsaid. It is implicit and essential: “You make me feel like an onion when it is being peeled.” The poet is saying, using the metaphor of an onion, “I feel as if you are tearing me apart.” The feelings that the onion being peeled and the speaker comparing herself to an onion being peeled experience are rage and contempt for the person doing the peeling and tearing.

Although the poem is a monologue...