Fightin’ Was Natural
Fightin’ Was Natural - meaning Summary
Violence as Survival
The poem presents fighting and boxing as an ingrained, almost necessary way of life for the speaker. It emphasizes physical pain, ritualized violence, and the crowd’s demand for spectacle, while linking combat to survival and identity. Repeated lines underscore that fighting is both real and natural, yet the final turn—"livin’ was … hell"—reveals the emotional cost and moral ambivalence beneath the toughness.
Read Complete AnalysesFightin’ was natural, hurtin’ was real, and the leather like lead on the end of my arm was a ticket to ride to the top of the hill. Fightin’ was real. The sting of the ointment and scream of the crowd for blood in the ring, and the clangin’ bell cuttin’ clean through the cloud in my ears. Boxin’ was real. The rope at my back and the pad on the floor, the smack of four hammers, new bones in my jaw, the guard in my mouth, my tongue startin’ to swell. Fightin’ was livin'. Boxin’ was real. Fightin’ was real. Livin’ was … hell.
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