In “The Journey”, Mary Oliver goes through many struggles in society in order to find her inner voice.  Although finding her inner voice is important, there is a deeper message she is trying to introduce to the reader.  Mary Oliver’s various word choice, shifting text, and point of view builds on the extreme depression she faces and must overcome as she searches for her inner voice throughout life.

Mary Oliver shows extreme depression by using vivid forceful words throughout the poem.  Depression begins to set in on the reader when she says, “the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice-”(Oliver 92).  The word shouting is used in order to show how her depression is beginning to set in due to everyone in society trying to conform her.  Various words in the text such as tremble, tug, pried, and burn add to the emotional weight that is put on her shoulders as she proceeds through her journey.  The forceful words exemplify the demand she felt from others and the words act as nuisances that Oliver must overcome.  The nuisances are very discomforting for her which puts her in a more severe state of depression.  Mary Oliver refers to “the road full of fallen branches and stones” in order to covey how useless people in society are of no help in her journey but only add negative emotions (92).  Although the words are forceful, Mary Oliver makes sure to use words that cannot hold her back physically or permanently.  The words tug and pry are used in the text to show how society can try to hold her back but the obstacles are not stronger than her mind.  Obstacles are stated in order to show how depression can be overcome in various ways. 

In order to show how depression is overcome, Mary Oliver begins to shift the context of the poem.  She shifts the poem from depressing to hopeful by using words that look similar but have opposite meanings.  There is a repetition of the word “though” over the course of the poem until the word suddenly turns to “through”.  Mary Oliver did this in order to show how the word “though” refers to her past when she wanted to take into consideration what others in society said but her conscience said no.  She transitions “though” to “through” in order to show that she has moved on from the negative voices that once made her depressed in life and she has now found the light at the end of the tunnel.  Throughout the text the meaning of the word voice changes from being the voices of society to the inner voice of the author.  The author uses context clues to shift the meaning of the voice as she goes through her journey.  The literal meaning of the voice stays the same throughout the text but the voices change due to other words in the context.  The meaning of the voice at the beginning is negative and by the end of the text the voice is a positive thing that brings happiness and relief.  These various voices allow the author to express to the reader that there are changes, struggles, and learning experiences in life in order to overcome depression.  Mary Oliver is building up the plot by using these transitions in order to express to the reader how using mental strength to overcome depression can lead to finding happiness in life.  

Mary Oliver composed the poem in second person point of view in order to allow the reader to feel the depression that the outside society imposed on her.  While reading the text the reader will feel alone in a society full of negative people that only bring you down.  The point of view takes the reader on the journey to overcoming depression and finding happiness.  Mary Oliver wants the reader to feel alone just like she did when she experienced the long journey.  Mary Oliver uses second person to add to the message that depression can be overcome.  Using the word “you” in the text correlates with the struggle she went through by blocking out others and overcoming a task on her own.

Mary Oliver used many different aspects to portray the overcoming of depression to become happy.  The forceful word choice allowed the second person point of view to add to the imagery of the text.  There was a much stronger representation of Mary Oliver’s extreme depression when these aspects were used.  The shifting of words in the text allowed the reader to join the journey of overcoming depression which correlated with the second person point of view in order to make it most effective.  All of these aspects shined through the text in order to distinguish the transition of depression and happiness.   
