Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun: A Personal History of Violence

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

The Next Generation: What You Can do to Help End Cycles of Poverty

In this activity, students will learn more about Geoffrey Canada’s non-profit, the Harlem Children’s Zone, and brainstorm ways they can help end intergenerational poverty in their own neighborhoods.

In 1990, Geoffrey Canada helped found the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), whose central mission is to end intergenerational poverty in Central Harlem and set an example to follow for communities around the world. 

In this activity, you will research the HCZ to draw connections between its missions to the themes of Fist Stick Knife Gun and then determine which steps you can take to help disrupt cycles of poverty in your own community:

• Research the activities and initiatives in the HCZ. Look through the HCZ’s website, keeping in mind the core themes of Canada’s memoir (Codes of Machismo, The Destabilizing Impact of Guns, and Structural Racism). Which of the activities/initiatives help combat the problems related to each of these themes? How, exactly, do they combat these social problems embedded in the themes?
• Research how cycles of poverty and structural racism impact your own community and what you can do to make a difference. Using trusted local media sources, gather statistics, facts, and other information on the unique concerns related to poverty and/or structural racism in your community or state. Determine 3 steps you can take to help. For ideas, look through the Borgen Project’s “7 Ways You Can Help Fight Poverty in Your Community” and UC Davis’s “11 Suggested Actions Toward Anti-Racism in the Office and On Your Own.”

Discuss as a group what you learned during this activity. When researching the HCZ, did learning about the organization give you new or different insights into the book’s theme of Structural Racism? Did researching ways to help in your own community empower you to make a change?

Teaching Suggestion: This activity can be done as a class or divided into small groups. For the first step of the activity, draw students’ attention to the structure of the Harlem Children’s Zone website, which is divided into the following sections: “Our Purpose,” “Education & Youth Programs,” “Health & Community,” and “National Leadership.” The structure of the website can be used as a guide to help students connect the book’s themes to the organization’s mission. For example, Codes of Machismo, as students will have learned, were mostly restrictive and harmful to boys in Canada’s community, but it provided them with some much-needed structure. Under Education & Youth Programs, students will see that Canada has created an educational program for every stage of a child’s life, from ages 0-3 through college, to help provide them with a structure.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. In the final chapter of the book, Canada purchases a gun for himself and then eventually throws it away.

• Why, even after relocating to Maine, does Canada buy the gun? (topic sentence)
• How do you think being in a remote location in Maine affected his decision, both to buy the gun and to throw it away?
• In your conclusion, explore how Structural Racism can cause patterns of behavior in marginalized individuals, and thus may have influenced Canada’s decision to buy the gun—and how the subsequent decision to throw away the gun represents a break in this cycle.

2. In the early chapters of the book, Canada goes into great detail about the “pecking order” that exists in his neighborhood.

• Why is the “pecking order” so important for these boys? (topic sentence)
• What are the positive attributes of the “pecking order”? What are its limitations?
• In your conclusion, explain how the Codes of Machismo help bring order to the boys’ largely unruly existence in the Bronx.

3. The world that Canada describes in his book is mostly populated by boys and men.

• Where do women fit into Canada’s upbringing? (topic sentence)
• Analyze the few women characters in the book—for example, Canada’s mother and the girl with the rifle in Chapter 7. How do they function in the story?
• In your conclusion, describe how the lack of women can largely be explained by the male-dominated Codes of Machismo that rule Canada’s upbringing in the Bronx. 

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by textual details, and a conclusion.

1. In Chapter 4 of the book, Butchie is given a brutal beating by the other boys in Canada’s neighborhood. Why is he is beaten, and what do you think Canada learns from watching this episode? In your conclusion, describe how Butchie’s beating speaks to larger themes in the book surrounding Codes of Machismo.

2. In Chapter 9 of the book, Canada aids in protecting Kevin, a member of his own group, from a threatening, violent man. Canada is frightened, but also states, “I [had] given up the option of running. This freed me to act.” What do you think he means by this? In your conclusion, explain how his incident—the certainty of a fight—is related to The Destabilizing Impact of Guns in Canada’s neighborhood.

3. In the concluding chapter of Fist Stick Gun Knife, the narrator surprises the reader by revealing he is in college in Maine. Why do you think that the author withheld this important life change? What larger effect does this have on the narrative? In your conclusion, explore how Canada’s arrival at college is, in many ways, against the odds—not only due to his general upbringing in the Bronx, but also due to Structural Racism. 

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. In Chapter 1, what does Canada’s mother threaten to do to Daniel if he is unable to recover his stolen jacket?  

A) Eliminate his allowance

B) Give him a severe beating

C) Steal a jacket from another boy

D) Make him go without a jacket all winter

2. What does Canada’s mother lecture him about after he tells her about being robbed in Chapter 2?

A) The importance of keeping one’s guard up

B) Why you should never carry money where people can see

C) How the Bronx is getting worse and worse every day

D) Why he shouldn’t go to the supermarket alone

3. Why are Canada and his brothers excited to move into their new apartment in Chapter 3?

A) It is closer to school.

B) Canada’s close friend lives next door.  

C) The apartment complex has a basketball court.

D) It is much bigger than their old one.

4. How does Canada feel about starting junior high? 

A) Excited

B) Worried

C) Depressed

D) Neutral

5. In Chapter 5, what ordinary object does Junior use as an impromptu weapon?

A) A hammer

B) A basketball

C) A windshield wiper

D) A chain lock

6. Of all the weapons available to Canada in the Bronx, which does he regard as the “ultimate weapon”?

A) Fist

B) Stick

C) Knife

D) Gun

7. According to Melvin, what does Canada do wrong when he sees a man pointing a gun in his direction in Chapter 7?  

A) He runs away when he should’ve hit the ground.

B) He puts his hands up when he should’ve run away.

C) He hits the ground when he should’ve run away.

D) He takes out his knife when he should’ve put his hands in the air.

8. When Canada cuts his finger with a knife in Chapter 8, what does he use to make a splint?   

A) Matchsticks

B) A popsicle stick

C) A pencil

D) A knitting needle

9. When Canada and his friends surround the gunman in Chapter 9, where does the gunman retreat?

A) Behind a bush

B) In Canada’s apartment building basement

C) Into his car

D) Down a sewer grate

10. Which of the following best describes the call to action that Canada leaves the readers with in his final chapter?

A) Readers must act to stop the nationwide epidemic of gun violence while we still have time.

B) Readers should support the evolving arts and culture hub that is revitalizing the Bronx.

C) Readers should protect the sanctity of Maine’s safety, as its laws make it one of the only states that does not suffer from the epidemic of gun violence.

D) Canada thinks college education is the key to resolving the epidemic of gun violence, so everyone should receive a university-level education.

11. Which of the following best describes how school factors into Canada’s life, particularly in Chapters 5-10?

A) School is yet another hub of violence.

B) School is barely mentioned in these chapters.

C) School is Canada’s only respite from the chaos of the South Bronx.

D) School frustrates him because he is so far behind. 

12. Canada’s observation in Chapter 3 that the police officers in the South Bronx “didn’t take us seriously” when he reported a crime best connects to which of the book’s themes?

A) Structural racism

B) Codes of Machismo

C) The Destabilizing Impact of Guns

D) The Lasting Impact of Crime

13. Which of the following aspects of life in the South Bronx is most closely related to the theme Codes of Machismo in the book?   

A) Young men raised by single mothers adopt the title “head of household.”

B) Street code holds that knives are more “feminine” than guns.

C) Girls feel pressured to only date muscular boys.

D) Fighting becomes boys’ primary emotional outlet.

14. How does Canada behave when he walks around his neighborhood with a concealed weapon?

A) He carries himself in an aggressive way, ready to challenge any threat that crosses him.

B) He walks around with a sense of calm and peace about him, knowing he is safe.

C) He carries himself furtively as if he has a menacing secret.

D) He walks around with a guilty gleam in his eye, knowing that he’s contributing to violence in his neighborhood.

15. How does Canada’s mother react when her sons are victims of crime, and how does this affect him?

A) She reacts with pity, making Canada feel like a helpless victim.

B) She reacts with sadness, causing him years of guilty thoughts.  

C) She reacts with mocking laughter, shaming him to his core. 

D) She reacts with anger, motivating him to defend himself from violence.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating textual details to support your response.

1. How do the opening chapters of Fist Stick Knife Gun show Canada’s response to the disorderliness and unpredictability of the Bronx?

2. What does the contemporary saying by Bronx teenagers that they would “rather be judged by twelve than carried by six” mean (122)? How does this sentiment perpetuate cycles of violence?