In the poem, “The Journey” by Mary Oliver, Oliver’s goal is to inspire people into becoming someone they want to be, and not letting others impact negatively. The purpose of the poem is to journey on, don’t let anyone drag you down, and become who you should be. One repeated word that sticks out is the word “voice.” However, this word is the complete opposite of what the author is trying to implicate in the whole poem. The author tries to imply that the voices are just people around you in your life and shouldn’t be letting them hold you down. In this context, the author wants you to avoid the voice and find your own path. This essay argues that the true meaning of your life is something you should decide upon yourself. Though the voices have pessimistic attitudes and sayings, Oliver wants the reader to take away the idea of not listening to them and making your own life. Additionally, Oliver links the voices to imagery throughout the poem to gives the voices life and thought. She uses the imagery to give the reader a idea about the negativity in their life and to try to create their own path.

The “voices” are something the author uses to distract the path that the reader needs to find on their own. At some point in high school, everyone becomes aware of the poem, “Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost. This similarly goes with “The Journey” because we have learned to take the road less traveled and explore something new. Both of these poems try to convey a purpose of inspiring the reader to become who they are, and to be different and unique. Oliver’s goal of inspiring was successful, and promotes everyone who reads this to become themselves and not let anyone drag you down. However, the voices are the opposition in the poem to bring you down.  

The “voices” have a specific attitude of being negative and down to promote the person on the journey to not succeed. The line, “…the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice…” is the first line that you hear about the “voices”. This first thought of the “voices” are negative because why else would the author use the would “shouting” and “bad advice.” Shouting is a verb that used when greatly mad and makes the reader put down. Using this tone and word put the “voices” in a negative aspect to the reader. Additionally, the bad advice is something no one would follow. The reader wouldn’t voluntarily follow this bad advice so they make the reader know that the voices are in your life is something to avoid to grow as a human. Towards the end of the poem, the voices begin to change from this unfavorable voice to becoming your own to express how they have changed into some voice that the reader would want to listen to.  

The change in the voices attitude creates a new dynamics for the poem because it describes how the reader can change the negativity to positivity. “But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of the clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own,” is the most inspiring moment in the poem. The voices that once stopped you and held you down faded away, and you began to listen to yourself. This changed the voices from being something that you shouldn’t follow, into an inspiration of yourself telling you to find your own journey. In this moment, the voices changed from being an enemy to becoming something you want to become. 

These metaphors that Oliver puts into the poem give the poem feel and life through the linking of imagery. Therefore, to find someone’s own path, the imagery of different scenes creates ideas of voices and allows the reader to think of more positive people then negative. This underlying imagery of the voices allows the reader to think of negative people but in the end positive who will bring you up. The voices are in the story to distract and Oliver’s goal to inspire is pushed down. However, the thoughts of great scenes can change the mood for the reader by thinking of different people from the start of the poem to the end to find those who are positive for them.

Voices in the poem have a strict job of distracting and bringing the reader down. Therefore, imagery quotes like, “…the road full of fallen branches and stones,” gives the voices life as a bad person. The voices created fallen branches and stones that are a mess and it makes the reader seem that they can’t get through the road. This puts the reader down and still describes how negative some of the voices around you can be. This continues to be the opposite of Oliver’s goal to inspire. Additionally, the Robert Frost poem comes into play as an allusion because it is a road and the reader has the option through all the branches and stones to choose either the road taken a lot or the path less traveled. This puts the reader either at a standstill at the path or they would walk through the mess to find who they should be. This story wants the person to find their own path and not listen to the voices. Slowly, the reader should begin to realize that through the road they should become who they are and not listen to the voices or use the path more taken. 

The imagery of the voices and the voices thoughts are all negative until the imagery quote, “… sheets of clouds.” This expresses as the reader would be going through many sheets of clouds and slowly the voices would disappear so that the reader could find its’ own path. Later in the poem, Oliver says that you should be finding your own path and through this help of imagery, the reader is able to have a picture in their mind of what they can do to become a better person of themselves. The clouds could be seen as waves of negativity to get over and the stars in the sky are the positive thoughts clinging the reader to good times. These sheets of clouds may have a lot of sheets but the reader can now see how all the negative comments can pass them and become their own person.

Mary Oliver mends words together to inspire her audience into becoming that they want to be and not letting others impact. By linking metaphors and imagery, Oliver is able to complete her goal to inspire by describing scenes of the voices that hold you down then scenes of learning how to make your own path. The “voices” that the author is talking about are people who hold you back or keeping you in a place of not progressing. These “voices” are metaphors for negative people around you that don’t believe in you and that they are holding you down. Linking onto the metaphors is the imagery that Oliver has covered in the poem. The voices are seen as distracting the reader from finding their own path but the scenery that Oliver describes brings life and thought to who and what these voices could be. From describing a road full of sticks that are distracting to soaring through sheets of clouds to become that you really are, the scenery changes the voices from negative to less important. Together, this metaphor and imagery are able to complete Oliver’s goal to inspire and not to let anyone hold you down.