
What does one think when he or she thinks about a journey? Does he or she think about his or her entire life or just a certain goal in life? After reading this poem, what would one think about his or her current journey in life? In this poem, Mary Oliver leaves the opinion open for the reader to decide what the main character’s ‘journey’ is about. Mary Oliver, the author of “The Journey,” has a style of poetry compared to the greats of poetry: Walt Whitman. Oliver describes her writing style as the following, “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” (91, 92). “The Journey” includes the literary techniques of language, theme, and tone to help the audience understand the journey of the main character and ultimately give the audience advice on taking their ‘journey.’

First, Mary Oliver uses the literary technique of language to guide the audience through the ‘journey’ of the main character. The language through this poem is best described as simple because Oliver includes everyday vocabulary terms such as, “though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice” (3-5). Oliver keeps these voices in the mind of the audience by mentioning them multiple times throughout the entire poem. The voices are first referenced in line 3, again in line 10, and then referenced again in line 24. The voice is mentioned once more, but it was different; it is the voice of the main character. The syntax of her language is rather long and flows well together piece by piece except for one sentence: “Mend my life!” (Oliver 10). This is the only exclamation point used throughout the whole paper; therefore, this phrase lets the audience know that it is significant in meaning. Also, when focusing on syntactic features, Oliver uses the word ‘you’ thirteen times within this poem. This shows that the poem is about the audience and their ‘journey’ through life. The language used by Oliver gives way for audience to understand her theme of the poem.

Second, Mary Oliver’s use of theme guides the audience through the ‘journey’ of the main character. The poem is focused on one theme throughout the whole text; that theme is the transformation of a person from being caught up in society to becoming more self-aware. Becoming more self-aware is expressed in the first couple lines of the poem when Oliver states, “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began” (1, 2). Oliver stresses to the audience, based on the theme, to not get caught up in an unhealthy society, and to not get caught up in the “voices around you” shouting bad advice (3). Oliver proceeds to mention the many distractions available to a person to get caught up in. An example of this in the poem is when the road is being described as the following, “the road full of fallen branches and stones” (Oliver 22, 23). The ‘fallen branches and stones’ can contribute to theme by symbolizing the fallen bodies of people who got lost in finding themselves. The transformation of a person is the center of this poem because it leads the audience to find a “new voice which you slowly recognized as your own,” and it leads Oliver to express to her audience on having clear understanding tone (27-29).

Third, Oliver uses the literary technique of tone to guide the audience through the ‘journey’ of the main character. The tone of this poem is written as advice from an elder who has experienced life in its fullest. The poem starts out in a serious tone shown through this quote, “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began” (Oliver 1,2). This quote gets straight to the point when mentioning the purpose of poem, which sets the mood.  The tone of this poem can be shown again when Oliver more advice is given in line 12 and 13, “But you didn’t stop. You knew what you had to do.” The poem is set in a persistent tone, a tone used between a father and son talking about the father’s life. An example of this advice is when Oliver states, “determined to the only thing you could do- determined to save the only life you could save” (33-36). The advice shown in this quote is in the form of a father talking to a son about his life and reflecting on it. The tone set by Oliver expresses to the audience to not get lost in society and stick to the inner-self voice.

Oliver expresses her advice to the audience through the use of her literary techniques of language, theme, and tone. Although she does not consider herself a poet, her talents of writing are very obvious and persuasive throughout this whole poem. Oliver does a fantastic job of relating the main character to be seen as the audience in the poem because they are given advice throughout the whole poem. She continuously uses the word ‘you,’ which gives the audience the vibe that they are actually in the poem. The advice is given in a sense of past experience, and the advice is used to warn the audience to stay on track and seek to find themselves instead of getting lost in society. This poem is especially important to all freshman in college because it is the start of their ‘journey’ in life, and they should keep self-aware in order to get where they want to go in life. Oliver does an amazing job portraying the journey of a common person, which leads the audience to receive advice from this poem and continue their ‘journey’ in life.
