In the poem “The Journey” Mary Oliver shows a vulnerability that was not portrayed in earlier writings of hers, making the reader empathize with the speaker on the mental and physical struggles they go through as the poem progresses. The speaker’s fear of breaking conformity is portrayed through the images of storms and debris on the path of life as she strides closer and closer to independence. Oliver uses natural imagery and harsh language to depict her personal battle between conformity and independence.

Oliver’s use of natural imagery in “The Journey” reverts back to a sense of rawness and realness of being on your own for the first time. The poem starts off with the speaker being in a house (6). This image of a house to most is one of comfort, and friends and family. However, this fort of protection is being invaded by voices that are trying to tear the speaker apart, by “shouting their bad advice” (4-5). These voices seem to overpower the speaker, because the house that was supposed to represent safety, is now beginning to be torn down as “the whole house began to tremble” (6-7). The poem also uses dark imagery, by using images of the night. The speaker says “It was already late enough, and a wild night” (19-20). At night, nature becomes more ominous, and things that seem trifling during the day, are magnified. By using the image of “A wild night” (20), the speaker uses the word wild because her surroundings in themselves are wild and stormy and her thoughts are also wild. She had just chosen to walk away from all the voices crying out to her to help them (10-12) and is on her own for the first time. 

Another image Oliver uses is the images of “the road full of fallen branches and stones” (20-21). These fallen branches and stones on the path represent the people who have tried to hurt the speaker in the past, and those who are still trying to get her to end her journey. However, as she “strode deeper and deeper into the world” (31-32) the voices started to fade, and “there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own” (26-28) and she found comfort in herself and realized that she did not have to listen to anyone else’s voice other than her own. Oliver does not only use natural imagery to convey her journey, but she also uses harsh language to show how she truly felt like it was her against the world. 

In “The Journey”, the speaker is struggling to break away from all those calling out who need her and becoming independent. Oliver uses language that makes these voices that are shouting (4) and crying out to her (11) seem like these demons that she can never get rid of. She also replaces words in common sayings to put a spin on the context. When she writes about when “the stars began to burn” (25), instead of writing about the stars shining, she is giving the stars a stronger image because something burning is usually something brighter than something shinning. This line comes at an important part of the poem, where the tone starts to change around line 23 and 24 when she writes “But little by little, as you left their voices behind”, the stars burning are not the only thing that are being burnt. At this turn in the poem, the voices are starting to fade and she is starting to become wholly independent, and it is not just the stars that are burning, but she is burning away her old life and all the negativity that came with it. By burning her old life away, the speaker is creating a blank slate that allows her to rebuild herself into being the independent person she has always wanted to be. 

Throughout the poem, Oliver writes of her struggle between helping everyone before helping herself, and breaking away and becoming independent and walking her own path. The unwritten context of the poem, derived from the lines “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began” (1-2) shows that before the start of the poem, the speaker had always gone through life putting others before herself and constantly helping those voices that she claims are “crying to mend their lives” (10-11). However, the speaker then realizes that she has to choose herself for once in her life and start the journey of discovering herself. The first eleven lines of the poem are about the speaker wanting to break away from conformity and those who are trying to hold her back. The harsh language she uses feels like the voices are angrier at her then they are in need of her help. Even though they try to make her stay, she decides to venture on and start her journey. The next ten lines talk about her journey through the night. The voices are still there with her, trying to get her to turn around, convincing her that she is going to fail. However, she has made up her mind and is determined to continue on her path, no matter how many before her have walked. The last fourteen lines of the poem are about the speaker finally being far away for the voices to fade away and have a clear goal and save herself. This last part of the poem shows how the speaker is now the independent person she wanted to be at the beginning of the poem, and she realizes that being independent does not mean being lonely, it is the satisfaction being able to live on your own: “there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company” (27-29).

Mary Oliver is a profound poet who understands the hardships of choosing to put others first, or yourself first. Her poem, “The Journey” is a journey within itself because she writes about the personal choice that everyone faces: does one stay and help those who need it, or should one follow what they want and go on the path to become independent. By using natural imagery and harsh language, Oliver depicts her personal battle between conformity and independence and relates this to the reader because it is a very real problem that almost all adults face. 