Analyze the poem "Rebellion Against the North Side."

There will be no monograms on our skulls.You who are training your daughters to check for the words“Calvin Klein” before they look to see if there are pocketsare giving them no hands to put in those pockets.

Naomi Shihab Nye, an Arab-American writer, wrote the poem "Rebellion Against the North Side" as a critique of materialism and consumerism.  She believes that we are doing our children harm by teaching them to value...

There will be no monograms on our skulls.
You who are training your daughters to check for the words
“Calvin Klein” before they look to see if there are pockets
are giving them no hands to put in those pockets.

Naomi Shihab Nye, an Arab-American writer, wrote the poem "Rebellion Against the North Side" as a critique of materialism and consumerism.  She believes that we are doing our children harm by teaching them to value material things. Children are being accustomed to look for the name brand of an object rather than the quality.  Paying top dollar for a brand or "monogram" is done only to be included in the "in crowd."  She makes the argument that doing this teaches children to be followers who are not able to think for themselves.  

You are giving them eyes that will find nothing solid in stones.
No comfort in rough land, nameless sheep trails.
No answers from things which do not speak.

The reference to "sheep trails" is meant to exemplify the blindness by which consumers follow the leader when it comes buying consumer goods.  She directs parents to remind their children that for generations, people spun their own clothing and wore it "till they fell apart."  Nye also believes that these fashions are fleeting and children should be taught to revere the natural world more than the material world.