
Mary Oliver’s “The Journey” is a poem that describes how one should progress along the journey of life with the goal of becoming an individual. She implies that life is a journey where an individual must listen to himself and overcome negative factors of the world such as negative people and bad experiences. One must do so in order to gain insight about what to do to evolve along the journey with the ultimate goal of saving himself. Oliver repeatedly writes about the idea of one listening to himself and knowing what one has to do. She does so in order to show that the ultimate goal of one’s journey is to become a person capable of thinking for himself because in order for one to save his self, one must first become their own individual. Oliver uses personification, imagery, and repetition to show how an individual must focus on himself, ignore unnecessary distractions, and work through obstacles in order to recognize their own voice and save himself.

In the beginning of the poem, Oliver writes: “One day you finally knew / what you had to do and began, / though the voices around you / kept shouting / their bad advice” (1-5). Oliver begins with this idea of one knowing what he has to do in order to progress through life. She then follows it up with the voices which are shouting bad advice. Often times when a person is giving someone advice, that person is hoping to benefit from whatever it is they advise because it is in the human nature to do whatever it is that will benefit them. This is evidenced when the voices all cried “Mend my Life” expecting help along their own journey (Oliver 10). Here, she shows that in order to successfully move along the journey, one has to drown out those voices which are shouting bad advice. This is evidenced when a few lines later in the poem, she writes: “each voice cried / But you didn’t stop” (Oliver 11-12).  She uses the voices to represent a distraction that one must overlook. One must ignore the voices, listening to himself and doing what he wants, because this will lead to them moving forward and ultimately saving himself. 

Oliver also uses personification to show how one must power through the negatives of the world in order to develop along the journey of life and save himself in the end. Oliver writes: “You knew what you had to do, / though the wind pried / with its stiff fingers” (13-15). The wind is given a human like quality here; wind cannot pry with fingers. The wind represents a type of distraction trying to hold one back along the journey. The way she phrases these three lines shows that one knows that he must ignore this distraction no matter how long it lasts and work through it.  She ultimately personifies the wind here in order to demonstrate that along the journey of life there will be distractions and setbacks, but one simply needs to ignore these and proceed on, worrying about saving himself. 

Additionally, Oliver employs visual imagery in her poem. She does so by writing “and the road full of fallen / branches and stones” (21-22). This makes it so the reader can visualize a path being blocked by these obstacles. Her use of imagery here shows one at a tough point in the journey, where he is faced with many obstacles. The tough point here in the journey is that this is the point where one is transitioning into an individual and being able to think for himself, listening to his own voice instead of others. She is using the imagery here to show how one needs to focus on himself, ignoring distractions such as obstacles, so they can work and get through the hindrances they are faced with. Oliver is suggesting that in order for one to successfully find his own voice, he must be resilient, not succumbing to harsh times.

Moreover, repetition is used at the end of the poem to prove that one must focus on one thing, himself. Oliver repeats “determined to” and “the only” at the end of the poem in order to emphasize the idea that one should only focus on his self if he wants to successfully become an individual who thinks for himself. The significance of this repetition being at the end of the poem is that this is the part where one’s journey is ending, after one has discovered himself and learned that one can only truly rely on himself. It is a common belief that when one is unsure of something, he should go with his gut feeling and Oliver supports this belief of one listening to himself, as she evidences by ending the poem with this phrase: “determined to do / the only thing you could do -- / determined to save / the only life you could save” (Oliver 33-36). This shows how one must only listen to himself, because in the end the only person one can truly save is his own self. It is significant that she uses repetition at the end of the poem because this is when one’s journey is coming to an end and he has found himself after learning that he can only truly rely on himself, so the only one can truly save is himself.

Oliver ultimately is trying to convey the idea that one must listen to himself and his inner voice, because it won’t lead you the wrong way. It makes sense to listen to your conscious. It won’t lie to you. Sure, one may lie to himself about how much work he can get done in a given amount of time or about how long he is going to work out for, but deep down, he knows the answer. The poem is talking to “yourself” as it says “you” multiple times throughout. This further shows how the only person one needs to focus on is himself. The only other people mentioned in the poem are the voices, which shout bad advice. These voices clearly are not trying to help one along the journey, so they should not be listened to. The voices shouting bad advice are nothing but distractions trying to discourage one from listening to himself and mending his own life. Lastly, towards the end of the poem, Oliver talks about “a new voice / which [one] slowly / recognizes as [his] own” (Oliver 27-29). This shows the final transition as one becomes an individual who listens to his own voice and not the ones around him.

In closing, Mary Oliver’s “The Journey” is conveying to the audience that the goal of one’s journey through life is too become an individual capable of thinking for himself and saving himself from whatever problems life may cause. Oliver employs rhetoric devices such as personification, imagery, and repetition in the poem. She does so in order to demonstrate how one must work through setbacks, navigate through obstacles, and focus on his self in order to reach the end goal of becoming an individual capable of thinking for himself. She also implies that in order to reach their goal, one has to simply think about his self, ignoring things around him that could potentially be distractions, such as “voices shouting their bad advice” (Oliver 4-5). Essentially, one must focus on himself, ignore distractions, and work through complications so he can recognize his own voice and save himself.