Much of Mary Oliver's writing is short and to the point. On any given line she rarely exceeds six syllables to capture the readers full attention and have a bigger impact on their interpretation of the text. Oliver is deliberate in both her line length and her word choice which speaks to her ability to think of all facets of life with great detail. This is how her language controls the experience of the poem. Her use of direct address challenges the reader to see through the choppy line length and see that "The Journey" enacts the journey itself, it performs the struggle through its form. She wants the readers who get really get it to have a controlled experience. If your experience wasn’t controlled, you shouldn’t have been affected by the poem.  She is able to think about the bigger picture in life, beyond what society says to think about. Her free spirit helps capture the important things in life with perfect simplicity. I found this to be exceptionally true in, “The Journey”. Each line is a piece of wisdom that helps you along the path to becoming your true self. As the poem progresses, the wisdom, her thinking about the bigger picture, and the ability to trust your conscious all become more prevalent themes. All of these themes are created by the style of the author's language. The unique dynamic of the author's writing makes the reader work with her to find the true meaning behind her journey in “The Journey”.

Wisdom in the poem serves to create a path through the countless obstacles in our life. Throughout our life we will encounter bad advice and things we are told or forced to do even though in the back of our mind we know we shouldn't, this poem is a guide to trusting yourself and staying true to who you are. The poem starts off with this dilemma, "One day you finally knew / what you had to do, and began, / though the voices around you / kept shouting / their bad advice" (1-5).  She starts the poem off with this dilemma to set the stage at the most important part of the process of becoming yourself, overcoming doubt. You must trust what you believe and not what people tell you what to believe. The paragraph concludes with, “ ‘Mend my life!’/ each voice cried. But you didn't stop” (ln 10-12). This is where the author begins to become themself. They hear what people are saying and they hear the bad advice being shouted at them, but they trust themself enough to keep going on with their life and not give in to the people around them. This is the end of the first stanza because it is the end of the first chapter in becoming who you are. The authors wisdom continues on to the third section where we see the journey begin to come full circle. In the final chapter of their journey we see them truly becoming themself, “But little by little / as you left their voices behind / the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds / and there was a new voice / which you slowly recognized as your own” (ln 22-28). This is important because after all of the trust put in yourself and the authors wise words, we see their true voice emerge and they now become themselves. The authors wisdom is so useful because it is so simple yet clear. It derives from a very complex situation yet the author is able to simplify what is important for to get through this journey. 

The author's ability to think about the bigger picture beyond just words on a page helps us find the importance in her words. As she says, the voices of society do nothing but “shout their bad advice”, we need to stay above that and believe in ourselves because we live in a world where in order to be considered “normal” we must conform to society. The simplicity of the author's words are found in the last paragraph too, when she leaves us with the difficult task of finding our true voice, in a world where society controls how people think, speak, and act. The beauty of the simplicity is that there is so much meaning behind her words even though she uses so few. Each word holds an important symbol that contributes to the overall message of her words. There are many lines in the poem that are only two or three words long and hold the importance of an entire poem. She uses her wisdom to create the simplicity in her words. One of the most important lines in the whole poem is only four letter long, “but you didn't listen” (ln 12). This is when the reader has overcome society and its bad advice to find their own true voice. They finally trust their conscious and are able to carry out their life as themself.

The ability to trust your conscious is a very important yet difficult task, especially when society is persuading you not to. Society is always conveying the message, trust what you see and believe what you hear, and unfortunately too many people conform to this message and never truly find themselves. The author is very against what society has to say. Society portrays the fact that they know you better than you know yourself. Its an unfortunate thought, but it is true. The author leaves us with an important message about society. As we learn to step away from a world where society controls our every move, it is only then that we are able to make the leap into the new world. The world led by our own voice. It is only then when we can truly be ourselves. The last ten lines of the poem are where the reader truly becomes who they are, “there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own / that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world / determined to do the only thing you could do – determined to save the only life you could save” (ln 27-37).  It is at this point that we recognize our own voice, a voice that has actually kept us company and guided us throughout our journey. This is our conscious, the voice of our hearts. This was the voice that saved us.

The wisdom, the simplistic nature of the author's style, and the ability to trust your conscious are very wise themes in the process of finding who you are. The author does a great job of deciding what process to follow in becoming who you are. Her wisdom can be seen by any person of any page and her message can be applied by anyone as well. She wants to call the reader out and force you to pay greater attention to her line length. She wants us to stumble over words and choppy sentences to actually feel her choppy and difficult struggle in her life. If we stop and think about why her piece is so abnormal then we have done our job as the reader. She calls us out on another level so we understand her on another level. Once you understand what she really wants you to know, her journey, you can understand the whole story.
