Making a Fist

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).