Mary Oliver in “The Journey” uses tone and other literary elements to show us the main theme of the piece. Which is that there is something in life people want and nothing should deter them from that. This idea should be the driving force behind anybody’s life. Finding the thing you want to do can be a difficult thing. Oliver also warns of the things in life that will attempt to turn you away from your goal. Oliver Uses metaphors and strong tones to back up and support her theme of being strong willed. 

 Finding one’s inner voice is not an easy thing to do. There will be many opportunities and distractions along the way, but those need to be silenced while your own voice comes out. “one day you finally knew what you had to do”. (Oliver 92) First line start off on a strong note. Oliver begins the poem as you begin your journey in life, by figuring out what is you want to do. The Word the stands out is finally shows that it is hard to find the thing that you want to do and you have been trying to for a long time without success. Then one day it hits you like an epiphany and your path life comes out. It’s an aha moment when the thing becomes clear to you. But the finally shows you have been working on it. That there have been other things that have looked like the answer but turn out are not. That maybe the right place isn’t found the first time at after trying and you shouldn’t settle for anything less than the final goal in life. It may take a couple of ryes but there has to be a willingness to keep pushing and find the right fit.

Society has many ideas of how a life is supposed to be run, but societies opinion should be mute compared to your own voice. “though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice”.(92)  The one thing in life that Is the final goal is not easy to find. Everybody and their mothers are trying to influence the final decision. Everyone has an opinion on what a person should do with their life. Oliver represents this in her writing with the “voices”. The voices are the people who think they know what is best in life, and they can be very hard to overcome. They always believe they are right and will try to change the direction of your goal. By using the word shouting Oliver shows how hard it is to ignore the voices. Shouting is a very load and distracting form of communication. The voices shouting their opinion is one challenge in life keeping you from where you want be, and You need to be willing and have the drive to fight back and shut off the outside voices. To Forget about them and focus on the right path in life.

Many times society has given you a place in life that is not where your inner voice wants to be. “Though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles”.(92) It will always be easier to settle for a lesser position than where you actually want to be. The right goal is not an easy one and it has to be worked towards. The house in the writing represents the stable position of settling for less than perfect. Sure it is a place to stay, like a house, but it is not the best home out there. There are mansions out there that are worth working towards, weather it is an actual mansion you are looking for or another thing in life there is something better. When you make the leap to trusting your own goals it will feel like the old house is going to fall with uncertainty, and the easy way out will be nipping at your ankles begging for you to stay. But again you must focus not on the old but on the final goal, the voice that tells what the real goal in life is. 

Many people out there are too caught up in their own problems to realize not everyone in the world is there to help them. “” mend my life” each voice cried”(92). The voices here are represented by the things in life that only want to take and not to give. There will be events or people that will want you to stop what you are doing to help them fix their life. But The goal is to listen to your voice and not the cries of others. It is never a bad thing to help put a person in need. However, Others problems need to be solved by them. There needs to be a willingness to hold off on others while your ow voice is telling you where you want to go.

It is not an easy task to shut others out and listen to your own true voice. There will always be obstacles in the way of your own voice, but they will only keep building up with the more time that passes. “it was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones”.(92) Sometimes the voice telling you what to do gets quitted by other forces in life, which are not as important but are very distracting of what you want. Your own voice must be the voice heard the loudest and must be taken into action. It’s already a hard road covered with challenges and obstacles that need to be overcome, the longer time is wasted the harder it becomes to listen to your own voice. There will always be difficulties in listening to yourself, but they will never be easier than now. Things only get more chaotic and difficult. Life is ready and the longer you want the smaller chance you have to find the true goal of your inner voice. 

Focusing on your own voice is the true goal in life. There has to be a willingness to ignore others and focus on your voice. “as you left the vices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds”.(92) It is never the goal to go out at night and look at a sky full of clouds. It is wanted to see a sky full of brightly shinning stars. The clouds are others shouting their opinions trying to cover your voice, the stars are your voices goals trying to find their way through the clouds. AS the inner voice begins to come out and show the right path in life the stars start to come out and you get to experience what you wanted to all along. When you are willing to leave others voices being and listen to your own the stars begin to come out and what was wanted all along begins to come out through the clouds. 

 Other voices will only distract you from yourself. First you must find your own voice and complete what you want to do. “determined to save the only life you could save”.(92) As you begin to listen to your own voice the real pleasures in life come out and you start to see what it is your life needs and wants. It will never be easy to shut out societies wants and what society believes the best way to run a life. But when the willingness to find your own path breaks through it begins to become clear the only thing that needs to be focus on is your own life. To overcome society’s conceptions about where life is supposed to go and find your own voice is the true way to find what is most important in the world.
