In order for audiences to fully appreciate a literary work, the deeper meanings and syntactical choices of the text need to be interpreted. The author intricately uses repetition, imagery, personification, and meaningful diction, just as a performer uses interaction, instruments, and body language to connect with the audience. In Mary Oliver’s “The Journey”, the various literary devices create versatile and open interpretations. As a result of closely reading “The Journey” and considering all of its literary devices, it becomes evident that the subject of the poem is walking away to save herself from the temptations of addiction. 

Mary Oliver paints clear images in this poem to help the audience picture what the subject had to endure at the start of her journey. In “The Journey,” the audience can recognize that Oliver makes a connection between the subject’s soul and the “trembling” house” depicted in lines 6-7. This symbol suggests that the main character’s sense of security, portrayed as a trembling house, has been breached by her malicious demons who are reaching through the floorboards. A house is a place that humans can call home and feel protected from whatever lies out in the nasty world. Nevertheless, that place that receives the safe label of “home” no longer contains its perfect blend of both security and freedom, as a result of those who wreak havoc on the innocent. Not only is the shaking house a symbol of crumbling security, but it also can imply the image of an addict suffering and trembling from withdrawals. Overall through Oliver’s incredible symbolism, the reader can feel how trapped, uncomfortable, and afraid the character is from her addiction and in turn understand why she begins her tiring journey.

The scene that Mary Oliver sets could also be related to an addict. The subject describes her surroundings by saying, “It was already late / enough, and a wild night” (lines 19-20). This description is similar to how addicts get into dangerous situations late at night. As the subject continues in her journey, she tells of how “the stars [begin] to burn / through the sheets of clouds” (lines 25-26). The fact that she gains clarity as she leaves her situation means that not only is her high fading but she is also seeing her situation more clearly. The way that Oliver describes the night links the subject to themes of addiction.

The difficult burden of addiction is hard for someone to overcome because of temptations: of the devil, friends, boredom. Mary Oliver’s main character handles her ration of temptations, “the voices around [her] / kept shouting / their bad advice” (lines 3-5). These voices continue to haunt her throughout the poem until she overcomes her temptation and reaches her long desired place of security, even if it is no longer her trembling home. The voices shouting around her could possibly be her “friends” who are trying to pull her back into her addictive lifestyle, or they could be the devil’s demons luring the main character into her sin, only to result in damnation. The idea of voices is used repeatedly, but the source of the voices becomes clear as their sound alters form.

An example of the voices changing form is in lines 8-9: “[She] felt the old tug / at [her] ankles.” Instead of just a figment of her imagination, the voices become personified as a literal hand that reaches from the ground and clinches the subject’s ankle, making her fall. This hand reaching from the inside the earth supports the argument that these voices are the devil’s demons’ instead of her friends. Most depictions of Hell, Satan’s dwelling, are portrayed to exist below the ground in the center of the earth, the same place that the hand is coming from. Furthermore, this example diminishes the argument that the voices belong to her friends because it is more difficult to imagine a human physically tugging on her ankles from the depths of the earth than it is to imagine the hand belonging to a super-natural being. Instead of temptation from her friends, the subject’s addiction stems from the devil’s working.

Another claim for the meaning of the voices is that they are disapproving of the subject’s new found sexuality, but this argument is not well supported by the text. For example, the final lines of the poem, “determined to save / the only life you could save” establish the theme that the main character is saving herself from some type of unjust punishment. If she thought her homosexuality being punished was unjust, it would go against the various teachings of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism, and many other religions that believe that homosexuality is a sin. Going by the earlier interpretation of the devil’s hands reaching from the earth, the main character has religious ties and would most likely try to avoid her homosexual desires. Current laws also state that homosexuality deserves any severe punishment or requires anyone from saving. In the context of addiction, however, drug use and gambling can lead to punishment, imprisonment or death, all of which the subject is trying to avoid by saving her own life. By resisting her desires to delve back into her old bad habits, the subject is trying to rescue herself from sin. She took responsibility for her life and immediately decided that she needed to make drastic changes in order to “save the only life she could save.”

The poem is probably at its most effective when it is interpreted as a journey of a female who must put down her harmful addictive lifestyle to not only save her life, but save her soul from damnation. By closely reading Mary Oliver’s “The Journey,” it is evident that she is tormented by issues with addiction. The demonic voices try to persuade her to return to her past sins but she must escape the trembling house and save her life.
