

Someone whispering in your ear, saying you cannot do it, and just making you self-doubt yourself. This would be called negative criticism. Negativity never gets people anywhere. That is exactly what Mary Oliver thought. She was surrounded by reluctance. She got passed the uncertainty and became the person she is now. Mary Oliver had to work hard to get past the uncertainty from others and even from herself. The narrator faces negativity throughout the poem and shows how she overcame the negativity.  In her poem “The Journey”, the main character had to deal with negativity and realizes that the only way to get stronger is to get passed it. 

In the poem “The Journey”, Mary Oliver uses the theme negativity by showing her self-doubting her goals. The first time she uses this theme is when she said, “Though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice”(Oliver 92). This shows that the people around the main character gave her the wrong idea on what to do and that she should not follow her dream. They just criticize what she is doing and that negativity gets to her. She even starts to doubt herself, and asks herself if she can even reach her dreams. For example, Mary Oliver said, “Though their melancholy was terrible”(Oliver 92). This shows that the criticism around the main character got to her. Getting no support from loved ones hurts and it makes you start to doubt yourself. Negativity is never a good thing and in this poem it shows how the character got stronger throughout the poem. The negativity was her fuel and she tried to prove everyone wrong. Mary Oliver is trying to prove a point that negativity will get to you and it will hurt. But the only thing that matters is how you take it and what you do after that. If you just sulk and do nothing you will go nowhere in the world. But if you take it, make it your fuel you will go far in your life and accomplish anything you dreamed of completing. 

After that the main character gets on with her journey, she is so tired of the negativity that she says, “Mend my life” (Oliver 92). This is showed that she is done with the past and now only worried about fixing her life. So she becomes more independent and less dependable on her friends now. The first step is proving everyone wrong and reaching her goal. So she continues towards her goal. In the world today, people do what she does everyday. Which is proving that their dreams are not impossible. If you have the right mindset you will reach your goal. For example, Mary Oliver had to ignore those negative comments. Critics around her doubted if she could make it as a writer. Instead of getting upset after getting negative comments about her ideas, she fixed her life and took that as her fuel. She ignored them and became a successful writer today and this poem “The Journey” is about her life and how she got passed one of her biggest obstacles. Also she said in an interview, “I consider myself kind of a reporter- one who uses words that are more like music and that have a choreography. I never think of myself as a poet; I just get up and write”(Oliver 92). This shows that Mary Oliver is unique in her writing. And whatever doubts she had for herself and others for her are gone now. Now she is an award winning writer and a very successful writer. Without the negative comments she has gotten, she would not be the writer she is now. 

The last important line that Mary Oliver uses in this poem about getting over negativity is the most important one. The narrator says, “As you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own”(Oliver 92). This is saying that she getting passed the negativity and finally getting the confidence she needs to accomplish what she wants. When she says she began to see the stars burn through the sheets that meant she was so close to reaching her goal and that she is getting so happy. The main character reached her goal. The feeling of reaching it probably had the same emotion of joy as when Mary Oliver won the Pulitzer Prize. This story was about Mary Oliver and how she had to work hard and without the support of many.  But she worked through it and finally reached her goal with winning the Pulitzer Prize. It is a great honor to win this prize and not many writers have done it. Writers spent their whole lives trying to get this prize. But Mary Oliver got this prize and know she can stop doubting herself as a bad writer and be happy for accomplishing her goals. She still has struggles now and especially when her partner died. But Mary Oliver is working through it and still writing to this day.

In Mary Oliver’s poem “The Journey”, the main character ignores the negativity; she became closer to reaching her goal. We learned that Mary Oliver was talking about herself and the struggles she had to go through. Negativity is never a bright sight and no one should ever hear these comments. But if you do receive criticism, it is all about how you take it and get over it. The most successful people in the world today get over these negative comments everyday in their life, that’s exactly what Mary Oliver did in her life. Negativity is something you have to deal with in your life, what we learned in this poem if you can just get past those thoughts you will be better in the long run and accomplish your goals. 


