Chapter 61: Practice Makes People – Summary and Analysis
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
The poem opens with the collective “we” making plans for the future, filled with impatient anticipation—knuckles rapping against what comes next. But the speaker quickly corrects this: tomorrow is not something revealed; it is something we actively render, refine, and wrought. Fate is not a battle fought against, but a thing fought for, again and again. The speaker admits there may be no original wisdom, only old sorrows given new names and the will to act. Life is depicted as stumbling back in halting movements, like a newborn creature learning to walk. The air is charged, and we are changed by the ordeal. The poem points to a specific shared pain: the needle of a vaccine, “a pain we asked for” after a long wait. The closing lines affirm that it is enough to be moved by what we might become.
Key Events
- The collective “we” expresses excitement and impatience for the future, described as “knuckles rapping” against it.
- The speaker redefines the future as something built through effort (“rendered, refined. Wrought.”).
- Fate is clarified as something fought “for” rather than “against.”
- Life is compared to a “wet-born thing learning to walk,” emphasizing a stumbling, recurring return.
- The poem references the arrival of a vaccine as a long-awaited, welcomed pain.
- The final stanza declares it sufficient to be moved by the potential of what we might become.
Character Development
- The Collective “We”: The poem’s central entity begins in a state of eager anticipation and mild frustration, then matures into an understanding that the future requires active participation and patience. The collective voice moves from looking outward for resolution to turning inward to find meaning in the process of becoming.
- The Future (Personified): Though not a character in the traditional sense, the future is given human-like attributes: a “hull” to be knocked upon, something that can be crafted and refined. It serves as an object of desire and action.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Fate vs. Agency: The poem explicitly rejects a passive view of fate. Fate is not an opposing force but a goal to be fought for through repeated acts of will.
- Practice and Repetition: Title and content emphasize that becoming takes practice. The image of life lurching in stops and starts echoes the idea of learning through failure and persistence.
- The Vaccine as a Symbol of Collective Pain: The needle represents a shared sacrifice, a welcomed injury that marks a turning point. It symbolises the intersection of vulnerability and hope.
- Transformation Through Ordeal: The air is “charged & changed,” and the collective itself is described as “us, charged & changed.” The experience of the pandemic has fundamentally altered the community.
- Hope as Motion: The poem does not end in certainty but in movement—being “moved” by possibility. This aligns with the collection’s overarching motif of forward motion despite uncertainty.
Why This Chapter Matters
“Practice Makes People” serves as a hinge within Call Us What We Carry. It shifts the collection’s focus from documenting collective trauma to articulating a path toward agency and hope. By naming the vaccine as a specific, asked-for pain, Gorman anchors the poem in the lived experience of 2020–2021 while lifting it into a universal meditation on how we become who we are. The poem’s insistence that the future is “fought for” rather than simply awaited is a central ethical argument of the book: that survival requires active, repeated practice. It also demonstrates Gorman’s characteristic blend of the intimately personal and the broadly communal, using first-person plural to include every reader in the work of making tomorrow.
Study Questions and Answers
1. How does the poem differentiate between fighting fate “against” and fighting for it?
The speaker argues that fate is not an adversary to be resisted but a goal to be pursued. Fighting “against” implies opposition and struggle with no productive outcome, whereas fighting “for” implies devotion, repetition, and creative effort. This distinction reframes human agency as collaborative with fate rather than antagonistic.
2. What is the significance of the line “a pain we asked for” in the context of the collection?
The needle of the vaccine is a rare instance of a pain that is willingly chosen after a period of helplessness. It symbolises the collective’s shift from passive suffering to active participation in recovery. It also underscores the theme that some forms of discomfort are necessary for transformation, a recurring idea in poems about growth and healing.
3. How does the image of “life lurching back in stops & starts” reflect the chapter’s view of progress?
Progress is not linear or graceful; it is clumsy, repetitive, and uncertain. The comparison to a “wet-born thing learning to walk” emphasises that setbacks are part of the learning process. This image reinforces the poem’s title: we become who we are through imperfect practice, not flawless achievement.