There are times in your life that you are going to go through hardship and have obstacles that you must overcome. It is already hard to go through obstacles so when people are telling you what you should do, what you need to do, what is right, and work is wrong it only makes the obstacles more challenging. In “Mary Oliver’s The Journey”, there are people around her that are talking bad and promoting negativity around her but even through it all, Oliver is motivating herself to stay focus and stay on track. Mary Oliver utilizes literary devices such as hyperbole, second person pronouns, syntax, and repetition in order to illustrate the theme of maintaining focus despite the obstacles one may encounter through the journey of self -realization.

One of the first things you notice is the sentence structure. There were only six sentences, but the poem had thirty-six lines. The poem was short and choppy and this brings a sense of urgency to the poem and this relates to the theme because the massage of overcoming obstacles is something that has to get through to you. This poem has short lines so that the reader would want to read it fast so you would get to the point and understand the full thought of the author. The poem was short and choppy and had a sense of necessity that connected to the theme. The theme is going through obstacles and adversity but getting through it and having self-confidence in yourself to have the confidence to get through it. There is sense of pressure to get through your obstacles and adversity faster to find your own self-confidence in your voice. The seriousness of the poem is conveyed by the sentence structure.

There are figurative devices in this story and one is repetition. She repeats the word voices throughout the whole poem so it gives the reader a clue of how she overcomes obstacles. The first example of her using the word voices is “though the voices around you” (Oliver line 3) in this example you can see that she is talking about the other people around her and how they are talking negative. The other two times voices were used it was toward the other people talking and how much they affected her in the wrong way. The fourth time, she was talking about herself instead of other people’s voices when she says “and there was a new voice” (Oliver line 27). A new voice she recognized as her own.  Clearly, the transition from listening to others to realizing that she has control of her own life is evident. She is using repetition to show us the theme of finding your own voice.  

When the reader takes a deeper look into the poem he/she notice the figurative devices and another one of those figurative devices is hyperbole. Hyperbole is an exaggeration, one of the examples are “the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds” (Oliver line 25). This is a hyperbole because the stars are not really burning through the clouds. This phase means that all the voices around the wanderer are disappearing. The clouds represent the voices and the stars represent Oliver’s subconscious. She uses a hyperbole to give you a visualization of her finding her own voice. By taking a closer look at the figurative devises such as hyperbole in the poem the reader knows it is possible to get through obstacles and find your own voice.

The last figurative device is personification. Oliver uses an example of personification when she says, “the wind pried with its stiff fingers” (Oliver line 14). The wind is prying at your resolve and the fingers represents a human characteristic that is why its personification. Oliver gives the wind fingers as a human characteristic because fingers can tear at out your metaphorical foundation and pried is to pull you a part. The figurative device helps the reader to picture the point she is trying to convey how the wind is stopping her from realizing her voice. The figurative device personification gives the reader an image in their head to help them picture the wind prying out their foundation.

Likewise, Oliver uses second person pronouns so that the reader. When the author uses the word, “you” she is speaking directly to the audience so it is almost as she has been through this already and she is giving the audience advice. The author is speaking to the audience directly, which makes the audience more in tune to what she saying.  The word “you” is used 13 times so that shows how serious Oliver wants to get her point across. Oliver walks the reader through the journey by saying, “you felt the old tug,” “you knew what you had to do,” “you left their voices behind” (Oliver 92).  This gives the reader a feel of how the author got through her obstacles. It helps the reader to understand and see what the author has been through and what she did to overcome adversity. Oliver uses the second person pronoun “you” to tell the reader her story of overcoming hardships, and being able to conquer any difficulties, and to make the poem easier for people to relate to. 

In the end, Mary Oliver’s” The Journey” takes the reader on a journey of self-discovery. From beginning to end, the reader is moved to action through Oliver’s powerful use of words and syntax. Oliver wants the audience understand and learn from what she has been through. Ultimately, the author uses figurative devices, second person pronoun you, sentence structure and repetition, in order to help the readers, understand the theme of saving your life by overcoming obstacles. Everyone goes through obstacles and have to overcome all the hardship that are in your life. Oliver helps you build your self-confidence so that you can do so.
