
The Journey by Mary Oliver is a poem that shows the struggle the main character has in choosing between himself and the desires of others, and the mental dilemma he is experiencing as a result. The poem references voices calling out to the character for the duration of the poem. There are also physical things in the poem, that carry heavy symbolism for what the character is feeling or experiencing. The character finally comes to a realization at the end that changes the entire tone of the poem. 

Throughout the poem, voices call out to the character wanting something from him. All of the voices call out to him saying: “Mend my life!”, demanding that their burdens be shouldered by him. The character has his own goals that he is striving towards, and is conflicted between helping them, or helping himself.  He chooses to continue on his own path, although he is filled with doubt throughout and continues to question his decision and what is truly important to him.

The poem uses symbolism to further express the turmoil the character is going through. In line 6, Oliver references a house that begins to tremble from the shouting of the voices. The house symbolizes the character’s values that are being tested by the people trying to sway him. The wind referenced in line 14 that pried at the very foundations of the house symbolizes the influence of the people that are trying to misdirect him, pushing his willpower to its very limit. Lines 20 through 22 reference a road blocked by stones and fallen branches at night. This symbolizes that time is running out for him to make a decision on what to do, and the longer he waits, the decision will be more difficult for him to make. Finally, after suffering through this test of character, lines 24 through 26 are about stars that “began to burn through the sheets of clouds”. This represents his realization that he has made the right choice in choosing for himself, because that has more meaning than any of the obstacles he experienced. 

The character comes to a conclusion at the ending of the poem. As he begins to leave the voices behind, he hears his own voice break through the others, and it is much louder and more powerful than any of the others. At this point he realizes that making the choice that benefitted him the most was the only practical decision to make. He could not have helped any of the voices that had been calling out to him, because they were not looking out for his best interests. He would have been held back by them, because they were only looking for personal gain from him, and did not care about what may happen to him.  His now knows that the only person he can rely on is himself, because everyone else is only looking out for themselves also.

The poem begins with the character realizing what needs to be done for himself. As he sets out to accomplish this, he is bombarded with demands for help from others. He spends the majority of the poem debating in his own mind about what he should do next. As he proceeds on the path to complete what he had set out to do, the strength of the voices grows and almost forces him to change his course. He continues to accomplish what he had set out to do, even though his values were questioned and his determination was challenged. As he got closer to achieving his task, he came to the realization that he had made the right choice in putting himself first. Had he done what the voices asked and helped them instead, he would have never achieved what he needed to, and the voices would not have returned the favor for him. 