When audiences interpret the deeper meanings and syntactical choices of texts, the texts themselves are much more effective which ultimately is more enjoyable for the audiences. Authors intricately use repetition, imagery, personification, and meaningful diction, just as performers use interaction, instruments, and body language to connect with their 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 its literary devices, it becomes evident that the speaker 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 speaker 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 from their addictive drug.  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. When the speaker describes the stars as burning, they are most likely meaning that they are extremely bright. Bright lights are often associated with goodness and hope. From the speaker’s imagery of the stars the audience is able to infer that the speaker in the poem is thrilled to see the burning stars because they have been searching for a way to distance themselves from the horrifying evil of her 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. 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 speaker mentions that the voices “kept shouting” which initially tells the audience that these voices are aggressive towards her. Shouting often revolves around the emotion of anger, and sense the speaker mentions their “bad advice”, the voices are clearly displeased with the opposite decision that the speaker is making. 

The idea of voices is used repeatedly, but the source of the voices becomes clear as their sound alters form. For example, the voices change form 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 of 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.

The poem is probably at its most effective when it is interpreted as a journey of a person who must put down their harmful addictive lifestyle to not only save their life, but save their 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. By resisting their desires to delve back into their old bad habits, the speaker is rescuing their self from sin. The speaker took responsibility for her life and immediately decided that she needed to make drastic changes in order to “save the only life [they] could save.”
