My Father and the Fig Tree by Naomi Shihab Nye

This narrative poem describes the author’s memory of her father planting a fig tree in Dallas as a reminder of his homeland.

For other fruits, my father was indifferent.
He'd point at the cherry trees and say,
"See those? I wish they were figs."
In the evening he sat by my beds
weaving folktales like vivid little scarves.
They always involved a fig tree.
Even when it didn't fit, he'd stick it in.
Once Joha1
was walking down the road
and he saw a fig tree.
Or, he tied his camel to a fig tree and went to sleep.
Or, later when they caught and arrested him,
his pockets were full of figs.

At age six I ate a dried fig and shrugged.
"That's not what I'm talking about! he said,
"I'm talking about a fig straight from the earth –
gift of Allah! -- on a branch so heavy
it touches the ground.
I'm talking about picking the largest, fattest,
sweetest fig
in the world and putting it in my mouth."
(Here he'd stop and close his eyes.)

Years passed, we lived in many houses,
none had fig trees.
We had lima beans, zucchini, parsley, beets.
"Plant one!" my mother said.
but my father never did.
He tended garden half-heartedly, forgot to water,
let the okra get too big.
"What a dreamer he is. Look how many
things he starts and doesn't finish."

The last time he moved, I got a phone call,
My father, in Arabic, chanting a song
I'd never heard. "What's that?"
He took me out back to the new yard.
There, in the middle of Dallas, Texas,
a tree with the largest, fattest,
sweetest fig in the world.
"It's a fig tree song!" he said,
plucking his fruits like ripe tokens,
emblems, assurance
of a world that was always his own.. Joha: A trickster figure in Palestinian folktales
THIS WAS THE STORY THE QUESTION IS BELOW!!

Reread the poem, “My Father and the Fig Tree.” As you reread, gather information in order to write a narrative story.

In the poem “My Father and the Figtree,” the father is seen through the eyes of his daughter (the speaker of the poem). Write an original narrative story that discusses the daughter (the speaker) and the fig tree from the point of view of her father. In your story, use what you have learned about the characters to convey the father’s relationship with the daughter and the fig tree over time.

Organize your narrative story to highlight the relationship between the father, daughter, and the fig tree and the details from the poem. Use relevant, concrete and sufficient details from the poem to support your story as told from the father’s perspective. The details you reference may be explicitly stated in the poem or logically inferred from the poem.