Mary Oliver’s The Journey is a poem about adversity and triumph over the voices telling the speaker to quit. The poem itself is a journey on its own, one the speaker goes on from the beginning in which he/she is listening to the voices and being deterred by them to the end in which the voices no longer have a platform to be heard from. It is a journey of growth for the speaker, one in which she overcomes the adversity that surrounds her at the beginning and allows the voices to turn into his/her motivation. The journey that Oliver is describing is one every person goes through at some point to beat adversity and move past the negativity of outsiders trying to deter them from reaching a set goal. 

In “The Journey” by Mary Oliver, Oliver writes “One day you finally knew / what you had to do, and began, / though the voices around you / kept shouting / their bad advice –“ (1-5). This idea of “they” represents anything in an individual’s life that could possibly be holding them back, including society, family/friends, or even the negative thoughts one has about him or herself. Oliver is trying to say that even though everyone around someone may not see the path that individual sees for his or herself or support the decisions he/she makes, that shouldn’t change the plan or the path. No one knows one’s self better, and once he/she comes into themselves or figures out his/her own wants/needs, he/she shouldn’t let anyone deter him/her from attaining those goals. Oliver specifically mentions that the voices are giving “bad advice” which is obviously stating that the people one surrounds himself with will say things specifically to deter him and stop him from reaching his goals and the only way to get where he needs to be is to ignore everyone around him that might bring negativity and to focus on himself. Oliver specifies that the voices “kept shouting,” rather than just talking. The choice of the word “shouting” represents the strength that “they” have and how loudly the doubt comes across to the speaker. 

The second instance that Oliver refers to an outside force trying to deter someone is done in a more abstract way than blatantly saying “they.” When Oliver says “You knew what you had to do / though the wind pried / with its stiff fingers / at the very foundations,” (13-16), the wind is the image that is representing the “they” and the stiff fingers can be paralleled with the voices mentioned earlier in the poem. The “wind” and “its stiff fingers” are metaphors for the previously mentioned “voices” that attempt to halt your success. Thinking about these lines literally brings up what wind physically does to basic foundations of buildings and structures. It creeps its way in like nothing else can and manages to cause immense damage – especially considering that it is an entity you can’t see or touch, only feel. Metaphorically, the “stiff fingers” of the wind can be meant to deter you from moving forward by ripping through your “foundation” – or the base of what drives you towards your goals. When looking at it as a metaphor of people and voices trying to hold you back, the “stiff fingers” takes on the image of being the fingers of those around someone and not just the wind. In either case, it is clear Oliver meant for these lines to represent the driving force that does what it can to undermine your path to success, whether it be people or things.

As the journey of the poem continues on, the voices mentioned previously begin to weaken and fade. Oliver says, “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,” (24-29). This is the major turning point of the poem because of what it represents to the person on the journey, or even the reader going on this journey while reading the poem. This is the first moment the voices are represented in a way that is not holding the speaker of the poem back, but turning into his/her own encouragement. The voices change from the entity that is stopping the speaker from reaching his goals and continuing on his journey to success to his own supportive voice, a voice that he knows he can trust and listen to. As the poem progresses, the speaker gets stronger as the voices get weaker – almost as if they are inversely related to one another. It changes from voices the speaker is not meant to listen to, to the only voice he is meant to listen to – his own. Oliver chooses to reference a simile in this instance of “the stars,” and this is representative of the speaker’s own voice breaking through the “clouds.” The “sheets of clouds” can be seen as the voices of everyone else, and this moment in the poem is when the speaker breaks through the clouds like stars on a cloudy night. This moment in the poem is what was being lead up to the entire time – the point of the journey is not to reach the destination, but the journey itself.

Mary Oliver’s use of this symbol accurately depicts the meaning of getting one’s self to the intended destination without being deterred by outside forces that try to hold one back. Each time the voices, or in the second instance the wind that represents the physical aspect of the voices, is mentioned they are weaker and less able to do damage. The first time they are described as shouting, the second time they are described as wind, and the third time they are described as no longer being what they were. They transform from something negative to the most positive possibility – from the speaker’s original discouragement to his/her eventual motivation. The entire poem is a journey first from being unsure of one’s actions to eventually becoming confident in them and then propelling one’s self forward with confidence.