18 pages • 36 minutes read
Naomi Shihab NyeMaking a Fist
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1988A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Growing Up
In “Making a Fist,” the theme of growing up connects the speaker’s present with her past. As a child, the speaker needs reassurance and seeks it from her mother as the speaker feels she is dying. Later, as an adult, the speaker once again seeks the same reassurance provided by “[making] a fist” (Line 11). In the third stanza the speaker still feels like a child “lying in the backseat behind all [her] questions, / clenching and opening one small hand” (Lines 16-17). Her emotional connection with the moment she was feeling carsick lasts throughout her life; this was a pivotal moment in her history, as she legitimately believed that she might be dying. This displays how growing up does not always cast away fears but solidifies our unique means of coping. In ways, the speaker—like all humankind—is still her child-self, her past and present bridging together to create a collective being resulting from all of her life experiences as she continues to age and grow.
Once the speaker is an adult, she still needs the “fist” (Line 11) as a reminder of grounding oneself in life. When reflecting on her “journey” (Line 12) in the third stanza, she describes it with “the borders we must cross separately, / stamped with our unanswerable woes” (Line 14). This exhibits to the reader that the speaker believes in the individuality of experience. The connection between her child self and adult self is because of her collective experiences–aging does not sever the connection. Thus, a person’s collective memory remains as they transition from childhood to adulthood. Though a “[border] we must cross separately,” (Line 14) while growing up does not split adult life from childhood, it connects the two eras of living more strongly together.
The Borders of Life
In the third stanza of “Making a Fist,” Nye’s speaker reflects on “the borders we must cross separately, / stamped with our unanswerable woes” (Lines 13-14). These “borders” (Line 13) relate to the intangible transitions of human existence. The poem addresses themes of dying and growing up, both of which may be the “unanswerable woes” (Line 14) with which the speaker deals as she ages. The individual experiences the speaker has–carsickness, thoughts of dying–remain in her mind throughout her life. These experiences are the “borders” (Line 13) the speaker must individually cross. Though she has her mother to comfort her through her carsickness, even as an adult she needs the same comfort she received as a child to combat thoughts of death.
Death as a “border” (Line 13) weaves throughout the poem. First, the epigraph, “We forget that we are all dead men conversing with dead men,” embodies this “border” (Line 13). The mortality of the speaker and her mother is inherent. Though all humanity must individually experience death, there is a comfort that can be provided between people. The speaker and her mother are “dead men conversing with dead men”—an inevitable fact that serves as a connection between each other. The “fist” (Line 11) technique the mother provides serves as a coping technique bridging young and old in their mortality. The mother’s “strange confidence” (Line 10) addresses the possibility that the mother had a similar experience in the past where she either feared death or experienced it in an unspoken way. Thus, though there are “borders we must cross separately” (Line 13), the speaker is able to feel a sense of comfort and community despite the physical separation of experience.
Unanswerable Woes
Nye’s speaker describes the “borders we must cross separately” (Line 13) as “stamped with our unanswerable woes” (Line 14). The speaker does not offer any clear explanation as to what these “unanswerable woes” (Line 14) may be, though the reader may determine these to be that which everyone experiences in the course of a life. A “woe” is a condition of deep suffering. Suffering is an emotional experience–there is no answer to an emotion, only the feeling of, and perhaps learning from, it.
When the speaker feels “the life sliding out of [her]” (Line 2) and believes she is dying, she asks her mother “How do you know if you are going to die?” (Line 7) Her mother responds, “When you can no longer make a fist” (Line 11). Though a child would feel comforted by her mother’s answer and believe it as truth, as the speaker grows older, she still derives comfort from “[making] a fist” (Line 11). In reality, nobody truly knows when they are going to die. Thus, the “unanswerable woes” (Line 14) persist, with the only clear response being comfort in times of mortal strife.
In the final stanza the speaker states: “I who did not die, I who am still living” (Line 15). If the speaker is writing, the reader can assume she is alive. Yet the importance of reminding herself of her own life is still a point of contention as an adult, and she still feels like a child “clenching and opening one small hand” (Line 17). The “unanswerable woes” (Line 14) reflect the human experience, and the poem relates community and comfort as the only response.
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By Naomi Shihab Nye
