Throughout life people tend to struggle with finding their own voice and place where they belong in society.  In the poem “The Journey” by Mary Oliver, certain words and examples are used to describe one’s journey through life, and the hardships that may be faced along the way.  Mary Oliver uses those words in a way that displays how society is constantly judging and trying to slow you down.  When she describes the voices tugging at a person’s ankles in the poem it represents society pulling you back from doing what you want to do.  The voices she mentions are saying things they know will drag a person down and make them feel inferior, and restrain them from being an individual.  Society wants people to do everything the way it believes things should be done in order to maintain the status quo.  By using the words “their” and “voices” to represent society, Oliver gets the point across on how we should be true to ourselves, resist conformity, and not be afraid to deviate from social norms.

Throughout this poem when Oliver uses the words “their” and “voices” she is describing the distractions from society which surround people every day. These distractions prevent people from listening to themselves. The main message this poem is trying to achieve is that throughout the journey of life the only thing that can save a person from the judgement of society, and allow them to recognize their own voice is simply just listening to that inner conscious they have and following the path it leads them down.  Society will always lie to a person and subconsciously create a false image of what it thinks is acceptable for a person to act, look, and think like. If a person sticks with social norms and follows the wrong path, it prevents them from flourishing on their own and discovering who they are as a person.  Naturally as an individual, it is a person’s job to save themselves from the judgement the voices give off and find their own path through life even though there will be many obstacles to overcome along the way. 

Mary Oliver uses the metaphor of comparing the journey of life to a storm to show how despite the obstacles people may face like the damages a storm causes, they can still push through and keep their foundation strong.  The constant judgment people receive from society relates to the storm metaphor because Oliver uses the wind to show how constant battering can make a person weak, just as wind can make foundations weak.  Oliver writes; “though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations, though their melancholy was terrible” (lines 15-17) to personify the wind, and portray the damaging effects the wind can have on a person’s own foundation.  The personification of the wind also allows the reader to relate on a more personal level to what Oliver is discussing.  The wind (voices) push and dig deep into a person’s core to make them weak and questioning of their ability to actually have a voice and their ability to be an individual with their own needs and goals.  The obstacles faced are societies attempt at keeping a person from meeting their goals in life, and preventing them from being an individual.  The way people are effected like this is all part of “The Journey” of life.  The voices will constantly be pushing you down, judging people, and making people doubt themselves as a whole, but they can’t lose their sense of individuality solely because of that.

Although there are many different ways to avoid the pressures of conformity, ignoring the voices while you try to find your own is the best way of overcoming those pressures of society. The repeated use of the word “voices” and the context it is used in throughout the poem, makes it obvious that Oliver is taking about the voices and judgment of what’s around you, the voices of society. Oliver writes in lines 22 through 28, “But little by little, 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.”  Mary Oliver essentially writes that by forgetting the voices that once tore you down you can find your own.  Finding your own voice allows you to experience and look at life in a whole new way.  Oliver also writes “the only thing you could do- determined to save the only life that you could save” (lines 33-34). The only voice that really matters is your own, recognizing that also allows you to see life from a whole new perspective. The freedom a person gets from the ability to think for themselves results in the ability to be self-aware and stand up for what they believe in. A true individual is independent and able to do things in life without being effected or changed by opinions different than their own. No one else can get through a person’s journey for them, it has to be done on their own otherwise that sense of individuality is completely lost.

Mary Oliver’s poem “The Journey” is a great mind opening poem about finding your voice despite what society pressures you to do.  It addresses the fact that naturally life will have its ups and downs, and the voices of society will always be in the background discouraging people from shining on their own, but in order to live life authentically people have to listen to their own voices.  Throughout the poem, Oliver’s use of the words “voice” and “there” help to show the effects these pressures of society can have on a person, along with certain literary techniques.  In the end, the only voice that should be important to anyone is their own. Having their own voice allows a person to be different than the social norm and the people around them, and to have a unique sense of individuality but enable the diversity that makes the world as extraordinary as it is. 
