
As every individual encounters situations it is easy to personally connect to hardships and life experiences relative to what you individually have gone through. All humans are alike in the fact that we have two arms, ten toes, two eyes, a brain, but every individual has different personalities, passions, and emotions. Self-discovery comes with time and the up and downs of life. Mary Oliver’s poem “The Journey” simply expresses the hardships, we as humans, go through with discovering ones self. We see life through one perspective, our own, making situations easier to understand or relate to if we put ourselves into the situation. Oliver’s “The Journey” puts a life perspective lens on the reader effectively with the use of rhetorical devices such as context and audience, and ethos, logos, and, pathos.

From the beginning of the poem, Oliver effectively connects with the reader with her use of relatable and powerful context. In the first two lines on the poem Oliver actively addresses the reader by writing, “One day you finally know what you had to do, and began” (1-2). By stating “you” instead of “I” Oliver forces the reader to put him or herself into the situation, instantly, Oliver’s poem becomes more effective and personal to the reader. Oliver has one point of view, and allows the reader to put him or herself in the situation of the poem giving him, or herself another point of view. By allowing the audience to be the reader personally, the context, which is the circumstances of the situation, becomes more relatable. If Oliver had written “I” instead of “you” through out the writing, the poem would have a completely different effectiveness overall. The poem’s context its self is relatively broad and relatable, therefore with each line and stanza the reader continually puts his or her own self with in the situation. This allows the reader to have a personal perspective, which results in the reader gaining a new viewpoint toward the poem as well as life situations. 

Searching deeper and deeper inside oneself allows us to emotionally connect and realize the themes of hardship, determination, fear of the future, confusion, self-discovery, and many more.  Self-discovery is a main theme present throughout the poem and Oliver uses pathos to emotionally persuade her audience. Turning a situation into your own automatically makes it more emotional. The poem effectively brings about emotions because, Oliver is aware that everyone goes through tough times in their live, it is human nature, and the way she writes her poem, lets the reader stop and personalize “you” for a deeper meaning. The use of powerful diction when she mentions, “though the whole house/began to tremble” (6-7) engages the reader in an emotional sense, yet still allowing the reader to self interpret the meaning. The reader must personally make sense of each situation making it a more emotional read rather than reading something that is writing without the need for self-interpretation. Self-discovery is an important outcome to this poem; we must help ourselves before we help others.

As humans, we often need proof and logic to fully accept a situation. Through out Oliver’s poem, which is about the struggle of self-discovery, proof and logic can be found.  “’Mend my life!’ each voice cried. But you didn’t stop. You knew what you had to do.”(10-12). This quote could be considered credible because everyone knows what going through a hard time is like whether the situation extreme or not. As for logic, we must help ourselves before we help others. “Determined to do the only thing you could do- determined to save the only life you could save.” (33-36). Here Oliver is proving that we must help ourselves before we help others, because everyone is unique and can’t be helped the same way you would help yourself. 

Overall, Oliver’s poem is effective due to the rhetorical devices she incorporates throughout the writing. These rhetorical devices implement a strong sense of emotion into the reader’s experience allowing for powerful connections to be made between the context and the reader. Relatable emotions, credibility and direct information allow Oliver to impact the reads life perspective in an effective way. As life progresses it is important to view life situations with many different perspectives and it is evident in this poem that we are individual we can acquire these perspectives by reading through different lenses. 

