Response to "Hello" a poem about rats!

The poem “Hello” by Naomi Shihab Nye was interesting to me for a few reasons. I liked the way it was presented…fairly easy read. You don’t have to do a lot of decoding or re-read each line for comprehension. Secondly, I think the poem is great because it really dissects and examines a situation. (Living with a rat) And in doing so, Nye pulls a lot of meaning out of her rat roommate.

Most importantly, I enjoyed the poem because it’s about a rat. Not that I’m much of a rat fan, but I like all of the things that just the mentioning of a rat in writing can imply. The rat works as a good symbol, and I am a symbolism fan.

First, I’d say it is safe to conclude that rats are usually associated with something negative. In cartoons, they are the villains, live in sewers, and steal. In real life, the word “rat” is used to describe someone who is sneaky or untrustworthy. In the poem, the rat steals peaches knowing whoever finds the peachy mess will scream. The rat only comes out in darkness, disguises itself as a candle in a drawer, hides in closets, and doesn’t show its face while seeming to know the narrator is there. So basically, through characterization and careful description, the poem goes along with the common idea that rats signify negativity. Simply put, rats equal bad.

In the second stanza, the poem begins to analyze the situation and ask questions about the rat. Where is this rat’s mother and father? Where is their nest? When was the rat born? I think the narrator is wondering if the rat was born in her home, and if it is the only one. However, through questioning, the narrator is also looking at the rat more objectively and possibly more sympathetically.

Perhaps she is thinking about the fact that the rat is just a rat, and is living instinctually, as any rat would live. The rat isn’t necessarily behaving the way it does out of spite, or to purposely anger and frighten her. It just needs food like any animal. Maybe she is starting to see herself as less of the rat’s victim. Maybe her home happens to be where this rat ended up. Considering the nature of and amount of rats in the world this situation is just chance, not a punishment of some type or a planned grudge. It’s just life, the way things turned out. Bad luck. Maybe the rat is innocent, and maybe she is too.

As suggested in the poem, the narrator has certainly let this rat get the better of her. She has wasted energy being afraid, and cursing it. She has let the rat put stress on her, and has let it drive her into insanity. She has even not entered specific rooms of her home in order to avoid it! This is no way to live, and in the third stanza the narrator shows this realization.

Of course it isn’t ideal to live with a rat. But also, of course we cannot avoid nature. So it is time to do something about. Accepting the “rats” in our lives is what it all comes down to. As the poem ends, “… the shores of morning loom up lined with little shadows, things we never wanted to be, or meet, and all the rats are waving hello.”

Lastly, it is interesting to me that the poem ends with the title. Being that this ending/title word is “hello,” I’d say it is very suggestive of the poem's main theme of “accepting and/or living with rats.” And that makes me wonder further, is the poem really about a rat, as a physical pointy-nosed rodent, at all? Probably not. In my opinion, there are many “rats” and we are always living with them.

-Rachel Alberico