Growing up is a very difficult part of life, no matter what age you are. Whether it be going from middle school to high school, teen life to adulthood, or even going to your first day of kindergarten, it is difficult. Film directors have even made movies and television shows such as “Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide” about these transitions in life. I am going through one of these transitions right now going to college and not being with my family. On my first read of “The Journey” by Mary Oliver, I thought that the poem’s theme was about growing up and how she was going through a transition in life and summaries online had the same point of view. While most readers of “The Journey” have said it is about a journey one takes in life to become an individual, a close and careful reading shows that Oliver is writing about escaping a bad situation.

The common theme by readers of “The Journey” is that Oliver is growing up and finding yourself as a person. The very beginning of the poem gives off that sort of feeling stating, “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began… (Oliver 1-2)”. This gives off the perception the rest of the poem is a journey that one takes mentally through growing up and the nature references are purely metaphors. Another key aspect are the voices mentioned in the poem, an initial reading gives off the perception that the voices symbolize society wanting Oliver to conform. But after reading this poem and really looking into it, I started believing in a different theme as well as different key aspects much more on contrary to popular belief.

My view of the poem is that Oliver doesn’t like the situation she is in and wants to escape. I came to this conclusion by looking at the poem more literally, especially the metaphors she uses about nature. If the poem is looked at chronologically it tells a story of somebody in a terrible situation that makes the decision to run away in an attempt to save their life and future. In the beginning of the poem there are voices that are shouting bad advice and directly after that the house begins to tremble. Oliver’s situation is complete turmoil to the point that the house is shaking so she decides that she has to leave. When she tries to leave she is tugged on the ankle and cried “Mend my life (Oliver 10)”. This line stating “mend my life” is very interesting because it is the only information that we have of the voices other than Oliver’s descriptions of them. The statement is reminiscent of family issues and people not providing Oliver with any sort of positive support in her life; they only tried to hinder her as a person. Though they tried stopping her Oliver decides that she has to keep going. Through the cold windy night, she left everybody behind. A lot of readers will take the nature references like “though the wind pried with its stiff fingers… (Oliver 14-15)” as purely symbolism with the wind being society trying to continue to break Oliver down. With a more literal view of the scene being painted by Oliver you can get both aspects of Oliver telling a story and symbolism through this view. Another example of this is “and the road full of fallen branches and stones (Oliver 22-23)”, and how on a first read this can seem as just symbolism with the fallen branches and sticks being the hurdles that Oliver has had to overcome. But with a literal translation the road is what she is using to run away along with the symbolism. The entire poem has an extremely negative tone; some of the verbs used are tremble, shouting, tug, cried, pried, burn, and fallen. This negative tone is used while Oliver is running away in the first two thirds of the poem. Although, the last third of the poem has a little bit of positivity stating “determined to save the only life you could save. (Oliver 35-36)” as well as “But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds,”. Positivity being used at the end of the poem is important to the argument that she is running away because when she has finally gotten away from the bad situation positivity has been shed on her life; she even stated that she saved her life by doing this.

Towards the end of the poem one may argue that the theme is about finding your own voice with the poem stating “and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own (Oliver 28-29)”. Yes, Oliver is finding herself, but anybody would start being able to find their own voice after leaving the turmoil presented in the beginning of the poem with the house trembling. But with that being said Oliver hasn’t found her own voice, rather an entirely new one that she hadn’t had before. With all of the chaos of her situation, this new voice that has appeared that she can hear over the other voices is courage. Oliver has needed this courage to be able to escape her previous situation and to be able to get to a better place in the end. With the end of the poem saying “determined to save the only life you could save. (Oliver 35-36)” one can even argue that she saved her life by escaping. As for the voices that are brought up through the poem, they aren’t getting quieter due to Oliver hearing herself over them. The voices are getting quieter because she is getting farther and farther away from her previous society on a scale of proximity. That doesn’t mean that Oliver doesn’t now disregard these people as her new voice of courage trumps these voices. 

“The Journey” by Mary Oliver is mainly about escaping a dangerous situation than finding yourself as an individual. The nature metaphors used by Oliver tell the story of someone escaping and by the end of the story it is described as saving her life. The new voice that Oliver found isn’t her own voice but instead it is courage which she didn’t have before, and she has finally listened to it by running away. By the end of the poem the tone switches from negative to hopeful by the new possibilities of her situation because of the new hope in her life. Close and carefully reading the poem sheds light on a different realm of meaning to “The Journey” than reading it just once or twice.
