It is a frigid night.  Conditions are treacherous and it isn’t safe to be out at this time of night. Random objects litter the road and they stand in the way.  This is Mary Oliver’s The Journey.  Mary Oliver’s The Journey is a poem about obstacles and the discovering of our own identity.  Oliver uses metaphors to demonstrate that obstacles will hinder us from having our own voice. In order to find our own voice and avoid the obstacles, we have to dismiss a life that is centered around helping others.  From the beginning, Oliver suggests that to fit in to society we have to conform to social norms.  Her tone, as she refers to “…the voices around us” (l. 3) “shouting/their bad advice,” (l. 4-5), develops negative thoughts in the reader’s mind. However, as the poem progresses, Oliver suggests that we can find our own voice.  She mentions “…stars beginning to burn/through sheets of clouds” (l. 25-26) and utilizes this metaphor to visually depict the journey we must take to find our own voice in a world where social norms speak for the majority.    

In the beginning, Mary Oliver has a negative tone.  In the text, Mary Oliver refers to the voices that say “Mend my life.” (l. 10) as a metaphor for the group of people that have yet to find their individuality and simply follow societal norms.  Oliver warns the reader to disregard these people in the very next line by saying “But you didn’t stop” (l. 11) meaning that if we do not stop, we gain the ability to stay on our own path and remain focused on our personal journey.  The most prominent examples of Oliver’s negative tone are when she uses the lines “… the wind pried/with its stiff fingers” (l. 14-15) and “…a wild night, /and the road full of fallen/branches and stones.” (l. 20-22) These two lines are two significant metaphors and two significant obstacles that Oliver addresses.  In relation to the theme, these lines present visual representations of obstacles we face both large and small.  The “wind” in line 14 refers to mental temptations or sins we come across throughout our lives.  The temptations we may run into can be as influential as drugs or alcohol or they can be something as simple as not making the correct decisions in school.  The larger obstructions such as the “fallen branches” and the “stones” referred to in lines 21 and 22, are representations of significant events that can occur as we travel down our paths.  Some of the powerful events we may encounter include being verbally harassed for expressing an opinion or second guessing that opinion because it doesn’t fit the norm.  These events, though formed through negative tone in the text, relate to finding one’s unique voice by overcoming those obstacles.  By overcoming these obstacles, we gain the knowledge and ability to handle the difficult situations that present themselves along our unique journeys.

Towards the end of the poem Oliver adopts a strong positive tone to demonstrate how by facing tough obstacles we can develop our unique voices.  Through lines 25-27, where Oliver states “…the stars began to burn/through the sheets of clouds, /and there was a new voice”, she clearly demonstrates to the reader that, despite the obstacles such as the voices, fallen trees, and stones, they, the reader, can overcome hardships both mental and physical to reach their end goal.  This strongly relates to developing your own voice because, often times, when we begin to express individuality society condemns us and forces us to follow societal norms again like everybody else. Lines 25-27 are also a metaphor for all of the small rewards that we receive as we achieve our goals traveling down our paths.  The rewards can be small and insignificant such as someone acknowledging your effort or they can be as powerful as getting a promotion.  At the very end of the poem, in lines 33-36, Oliver says “…determined to do/the only thing you could do--/determined to save/the only life you could save.”  These three lines are significant to the poem because this is the moment where we find that we have succeeded in becoming an individual.  This is also significant because it is the moment when Oliver acknowledges that we have defeated the obstacles that she mentioned in the form of branches, stones, and the wind in our face.  By developing a positive tone towards the conclusion of the poem using these metaphors, Oliver demonstrates that it is possible to have a sense of individuality while society controls the opinion of the majority.

Metaphors were an important aspect of The Journey.  Multiple examples of important metaphors include “…the voices around you/kept shouting/their bad advice… ‘Mend my life!’” (l. 3-5)(l. 10), “…the wind pried/with its stiff fingers” (l. 14-15), “… the road full of fallen/branches and stones.” (l. 21-22).  The voices shouting “Mend my life!” (l. 10) are a metaphor for those that have yet to find their voice or sense of individuality.  The “wind” (l. 14) that Mary Oliver refers to is a metaphor for mental obstacles that we face in finding our own voice.  For example, we often second guess our decisions when they go against societal norms and they make us stand out.  The feeling of standing out is one that typically leads to us regretting our decision and giving up only to follow the same rules we spoke out against.  The most evident use of metaphors in The Journey is lines 21 and 22 where Oliver refers to larger obstacles we come across. These obstacles most represent the toughest things to overcome in a journey to finding our particular voices.  Oliver refers to them as “…fallen/branches and stones.” and they represent the more significant obstacles that we come across throughout our lives.  These metaphors are crucial to the poem because they represent the journey to finding our own paths.  Through any journey we endure, we will encounter hardships both large and small. By using these 3 metaphors Oliver gives the reader a physical representation of what our journey and its obstacles may look like.  With that information, we are able to embark on this journey and reassure ourselves not to conform and stand behind what we believe in as we develop our unique identities.

According to Oliver, by the time we recognize our own voice we will have defeated numerous obstacles and “…saved the only life we could save.” (l. 36) our own.  In the end, Mary Oliver addresses obstacles that come along as we undergo the journey of discovering our own voice and utilizes metaphors to represent these obstacles.  Through these metaphors, she educates us on what a journey looks like as a visual and what we all can expect as we embark on our own.

 