A constant struggle some, or most, of us may face in life is how we find our own path. Sometimes one can get so caught up in others’ lives, helping them, encouraging them, living for them, that they forget to focus on the most important thing, themselves. In Mary Oliver’s “The Journey”, she shows us how living for others’ and putting their wants above our own can put us in a place of darkness, however, she also shows us that there is hope to break free from this burden and that the rewards when one does so are boundless. She uses many elements in her poem to do so, but the two most prominent are imagery and diction. Through imagery she touches our senses so we can understand more clearly the weight of living for others, and then the blessings once one decides to take their own path. Through the use of harsh and gloomy diction contrasting with comforting diction, Oliver sets an overall tone of despair contrasting with hope. Oliver uses imagery and choice of diction to give the readers a fuller understanding of what living for others looks like and feels, and how there is hope for this situation.

Living for others is a very real struggle a lot of people face, but others may not know what this situation looks or feels like. Oliver uses strong imagery to relate the feeling of not living for yourself to the readers. In lines 8-10, Oliver says, “and you felt the old tug/ at your ankles./ ‘Mend my life!’” This image she creates of someone tugging on our ankles gives us a deeper look as to what this situation feels like. It shows the readers that when one is living for others they constantly feel a pressure or a pull to do anything that others may need. They see those who constantly need something from them as a helpless child pulling on their ankles and asking for help. This image Oliver creates gives us personal insight on what a burden living for others may be. After she creates this image of despair and helplessness, she then creates an image of hope and the blessings one receives once they choose to live for themselves. In lines 25-26, Oliver writes, “the stars began to burn/ through the sheets of clouds,” this contrasting image she creates gives us a comparison between living for others and living for ourselves. When living for ourselves, we live in a state of gloom and only see clouds on the horizon. However, when we decide to choose ourselves, we gain a sense of hope and life as stars break through the blanket of clouds. This shows us how when one chooses to begin to live for oneself, they break through the gloominess and can see the excitement and vitality of stars. This image she creates not only gives us a picture of what it’s like to live for oneself, but it also creates an image of hope so that one day everyone can break through their gloominess and see the stars.  Through the use of imagery, the reader can clearly establish the feeling of living for others and then the hope one may feel when deciding to live for themselves. 

Oliver also uses harsh and despairing diction to set an overall tone of the passage to describe the feeling of living for others. She uses words like “pried” and “stiff” to show how living for others feels very controlling and severe. These words are very harsh and allow no wiggle room, no room for change. These words create a sense of severity and harshness. They show how when one lives for others, they feel as if there is no way to bend or change, they feel trapped. This severe diction creates an overall tone of gloominess and harshness, which Oliver uses to show the readers how the trap of living for others feels. She uses this sense of gloominess later in the poem to show the contrast of how living for oneself feels, and how that is the only way to escape the harsh severity of living for others. Oliver also uses another set of gloomy diction to describe the ones who are holding one back and making them live for him or her. She uses the words, “(terrible) melancholy” and “fallen” to show the despair of these people and how helpless they are. This also contributes to the overall tone of the poem by showing how these people are miserable and hopeless, and how living for them is just as bad. In contrast, Oliver also uses hopeful diction to show how not all hope is lost and that once one decides to live for them self, the opportunities are endless. She uses words such as “new”, “company”, and “save” to show how once someone lets go of the needs of others, they find comfort in the new opportunities and feel safe or at peace. This diction Oliver uses contributes to the work as a whole as she uses dark and strict diction at the beginning, and comforting diction at the end to contrast the differences of living for others and living for oneself. 

Through Oliver’s use of imagery and contrasting diction, an overall tone is created changing from darkness and severity to comfort and vitality. Through this, the readers can understand what living for someone else may feel like, and how rewarding stepping out and living for yourself can be. Oliver shows us that true comfort does not come from listening or pleasing others, but rather from listening and pleasing ourselves. This poem provides encouragement to all of those living for others, so that they may seek out their own journey to live for themselves and eventually have the blanket of clouds break away so that the beauty of vitality of stars can break through.