
While reading Mary Oliver’s “The Journey” she was uses dialogue and voices throughout the poem. She is trying to put a spot light to get us to hone in on a specific part of the poem. Mary Oliver is using voice and dialogue as signals to us readers that we need to pay attention to the poem in the exact moment the device is used. The voices throughout the poem are used to show the progression towards independence. Only those who leave behind the negativity in their lives will succeed in creating a new life for themselves.

Oliver sets the scene of the poem by beginning a one-sided dialogue with herself. Oliver writes “Knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice” (92). Mary Oliver is trying to show us how she realizes the state her life is in, and how she does not like it. At the time she writes the poem, she is more than likely in a dark place having lost her life partner. As she comes to terms with her life, she is determined to improve. She uses the voices for three reasons in this part of the poem. The first is as a representation of the negative aspects in her life currently. Each of the voices represents something different that Oliver is struggling with. The second is to show that our future is under our control. It is up to us to decide what is best for us personally, not others. Lastly the voices represent those who don’t actually care for her. Not people who wish her ill, just those who don’t have what is best for her at heart. Oliver leaves behind the aspects of her life that are tying her down, and in doing so she makes the conscious decision that she wants something better for herself.

Further on in the poem these voices are actually holding the her back in her old life. “You felt the old tug at your ankles. “mend my life!” each voice cried” (92). Oliver is showing us how people who are in our lives everyday often unintentionally hold us back (even though in the text it appears intentional). The reason that Oliver is showing us this is to get us to understand that the people with whom we interact may not be what is best for us. A real world example of this would be when an athlete, who grew up in poverty, makes it in the big leagues. Many times people who grew up with him expect some part of his earnings in one way or another other. This leads to many athletes losing all their money and ending up back where they began. Bringing it back to Oliver’s intent, it is very important for us to cut ties with those would hold us back, just as the she is doing by moving on with her life. She ends her connection with the other voices when she realizes that in order to further herself, she must leave them behind. The author is telling us that in order for her truly succeed, she has to cut connections with people or things that hold her back from where she wants to be in life. 

Oliver uses her voice one final time in the poem to show that she has finally moves on and is making progress towards a new life. She can no longer hear those voices holding her back, but instead hears a new one. “There was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world” (Oliver).  Mary Oliver wants this new voice to represent her own conscious, now emerging since she has left behind all the negativity in life. Once Oliver can hear her voice, she knows she has made the leap from her old life to her new one. Oliver wants us to interpret that it was her decision to move on that allowed her to be more successful.

In Mary Oliver’s “The Journey”, Oliver repeatedly uses voice to emphasize certain parts of her writing. She uses both dialogue of her talking to “herself” as well as the “voices” of those in her life. Throughout the poem “voices” represent negative people and feelings she had in her life. The first time she used the “voice” was to show her realization of the life was living. All that was wrong and fixable, things she could leave behind in order to create a new life for herself. The second time it was used, the “voices” were actually “holding” her back. They were trying to prevent her from leaving, even though it was necessary for her to leave for her own sake. The third and final use of “voice” was to show that once she cut everything that was negative from her life, she finally had the feeling that she was succeeding; she was doing something that was worth her time and effort . The first two uses of “voice” were similar in that they were the same “characters,” and used in similar ways because they had the same goal. The voices’ goal was to prevent the protagonist from leaving. Oliver’s use of voice changes for the last time in the form of her own conscious thought, showing that she was the one in control of her life now; she was in the driver’s seat. The various uses of voice used in the poem, make it more detail and making it easier to comprehend what oliver is trying to get across to us.
