
In Mary Oliver’s famous poem “The Journey,” she recounts the “journey” of her life and the lessons she learned along the way. We come to know that these lessons were not only for her to comprehend, but also that they were meant to be shared with the world. Oliver spreads her message by writing about one of the toughest times in her life and how she overcame it. One of the strategies Oliver uses to get her message across to the reader is by putting the reader in her shoes. Oliver lets the reader sympathize with her in the beginning in order for the reader to understand the story’s purpose. One way Oliver achieves this is by using the word “you” many times throughout the poem. She does this to make the reader feel as though they are the ones who went through this journey with Oliver. However, the meaning of “you” refines throughout the poem. During her hardest times, the “you” Oliver writes about is referring to herself in the beginning of her poem. The meaning of the word adjusts when at the end, she is giving advice to “you,” or the reader. This change represents a bigger change in the author after not only the meaning of the word has switched but the connotations have interchanged as well. The modification of the meaning of a word and the specific words Oliver uses in her writing represent Oliver’s transition throughout the poem.

In the beginning of her writing, Oliver talks about herself and her life experience. As she starts the poem off with the line, “One day you finally knew/ what you had to do” (Oliver 1-2), she is previewing what she experienced during her time of trouble. This gives the reader a sense of what is to come, but the reader is still confused about who “you” really is. It becomes clear that Oliver is writing about herself and her difficult time when writing “The voices around you/ kept shouting/ their bad advice”  (Oliver 3-5). This connects to Oliver’s struggles and what happened to her during this rough patch of her life. As a gay woman in the late 1900’s, Oliver was an easy target for most people given that her lifestyle was not accepted in western society. Thus, there were many derogatory terms thrown at her and many “voices” who “kept shouting their bad advice”. Oliver displays her difficult time to the reader by putting the reader in her position when using the word “you.” She makes the reader feel like the target as she felt all those years. 

However, in the middle of her poem, Oliver begins to show a switch in her attitude through a change of connotations. She writes, “You didn’t stop. You knew what you had to do” (Oliver 12-13). This is a clear change from the beginning of the poem as it seems that Oliver has regained her self consciousness and hope. The “you” is representing herself in this line as she is explaining what she went through during her tough times but that she wouldn’t give up. Eventually, things finally started to turn around for Oliver. She describes that “little by little, you left their voices behind” (Oliver 23-24). Oliver reflects on her change of mindset in the poem by changing the “mood” of the poem from the voices “shouting” to putting them behind her. It seems to get only better from there on as eventually, Oliver writes that she found a “new voice” (Oliver 27). This is clearly the biggest turn of the poem as the poet has now forgone the old negative voices of her past and has transitioned to these “new” voices. She concludes that the voices in her head were finally recognized as “your own” (Oliver 29). By using the word “you” in this matter, Oliver is putting herself in the position of the word and describing her life experiences. This makes the transition from her hardest times in life to regaining hope very easy for the reader to follow as it feels like we are on this “journey” with Oliver.

Finally, after her transition, the meaning of the word “you” changes once again. No longer is Oliver talking about herself and her experiences but the “you” is now the reader. Although Oliver gave the reader a sense of connection to her by placing herself as the “you”, Oliver makes it clear that she is now writing directly to the reader in the end of her poem to get her final message across. She does this by pointing her finger at the reader to make it feel as though she is physically talking to them. Oliver ends her brilliant piece by giving advice to the reader by stating, “Save the only life you could save” (Oliver 35-36). This is clearly Oliver talking to the reader as she wants them to learn this life lesson after understanding the path she went through to find it. Oliver makes it easy for the reader to trust her after connecting to them on a personal level. This makes her advice seem very real as it feels like by this point of the poem, she really seems to care for the reader. She makes her stern point very thoroughly and that helps the advice get to the reader quickly and smoothly. In order for Oliver to help the reader with their life, she first had to gain their trust by putting the reader in her position and understanding her “journey”. She did this by placing herself as the “you” in her poem. Now, the “you” is the reader and she wants “you” to listen to her final advice. 

By using techniques such as changing the meaning of a word throughout her poem, Oliver articulates the way her life had changed. She demonstrates how it was at the beginning and how it ended by differentiating the connotations used throughout. Oliver shows the dramatic measures in which her life occurred, but did not leave the reader hopeless. Oliver explains the transition she went through and breaks down the “normality’s” of life.  Because of the specific methods she uses to tell her “journey”, Oliver is one of many unique poets who are able to communicate to their readers in a deep and personal way. Oliver’s constructive approach makes the transition easy. The “journey” might not have been an easy one for Oliver, but it paid off by learning life lessons herself and spreading them to the rest of the world.
