The entire poem consists of the female narrator’s response to the push of a stranger. She analyzes both his actions and the actual motives behind the “shove.” She addresses the hurried man on the subway platform as if he were standing there, listening and asks rhetorical questions as if expecting an answer or explanation. She begins creating situations to justify his push- an interview or rushing home? The rhetorical questions create a tone of hesitant justification and curiosity.
After exploring the physical reasons behind the man’s pushing, she delves into the spiritual and emotional handicaps that could have manifested themselves through that push. She asks, “Can he catch up with his soul?” adding a deeper meaning behind the man’s push. Finally the narrator looks introspectively and asks herself how the man’s “thoughtlessness defiled who [she] was before he shoved [her]” and how she might have been if he hadn’t pushed her, “how might I be smiling now if he’d smiled, hanging back, as though he might have loved me?” This profoundly multifaceted reaction to physical and psychological actions shows not only the woman’s need for acceptance and notice, but also her desire for respect.
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