Mary Oliver creates a story of a person’s arduous voyage of freedom after they realize they do not what to do what other people say and become their own person. Each sentence presents a certain step in the endeavor of doing “what you had to do” (92). The further along in the story the reader gets, the more the message, which has been displaying throughout the text with diction, personification, imagery, and tone, is shown. “The Journey” progresses into displaying a universal message that every person can relate to. That message is, no matter how difficile the journey may be, a person should proclaim the right of freedom and become their own person.

Becoming one’s own person starts off with the realization that you are not free to do what you want to do, and the decision to make the change. Mary Oliver writes, “though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice” and “the whole house began to tremble,” the person decided not to do what the people told the person to do and not listen to what they have to say anymore (92). She uses the word “shouting” and “tremble” to emphasize the vexatious tension and hostile tone to present the desideratum of the person. When someone yells, it also shows authority over the person they are talking to. This is an implication that they people yelling at the person to stay not only need the person, but want to have full power over that person. The shouting was so severe that the house started shaking in fear, the person could feel the “old tug at her ankles,” trying to keep the person from not leaving (92). With the weight of the people, with their “bad advice,” at the person’s ankles, anchoring the person to the ground, the person perseverance forward to obtain freedom.

The people do not want that person to leave, they want the person to “’Mend [their] life!’” (92). The only life anyone can save is their own, they want this person to do an impossible task of fixing something they themselves should be fixing. This exhibits the control they think they have over this person, they think that this person can save their own lives. The “voices cried” to show sympathy and get the person to stay, “But [the person] didn’t stop” (92). The persistency of being free to do what you desire was stronger than the hostility of the people not wanting the person to go.

Although the person knows the journey is going to be strenuous and challenging, the person perseveres and “knew what [the person] had to do,” which is become free (92). The difficulty of the journey is conveyed through the personification of the horrendous wind’s “stiff fingers” prying at the very marrow of the persons being (92). When Mary Oliver says the “wind pried” it pronounces the effect of the forcefulness of this attack on the person (92). The imagery depicts a vigorous path where it is “late enough, and the road full of fallen branches and stones.” (92). Although the voices are no longer there, there are still obstructions trying to stop the person from surmounting their goals. The person faces monumental adversity while endeavoring a transformative objective.

The person is starting to realize that they are becoming their own person, “But little by little, as [the person] left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds” (92). The “stars” represent the freedom, voice, mind, and individuality of the person, and the “sheets of clouds” are the negativity and truculence of the people trying to stop the person from leaving. The image stars shine through the clouds that signifies that there is a breakthrough in truly be free, that the people are having less of an effect on what you are going to do. 

Although the journey was laborious and wearisome with all the tribulations and trying to seek for freedom, the person found himself. The person enduringly discovered “a new voice which [the person] slowly recognized as [their] own” (92). At this moment this person has been put through arduous encumbrances, and is enduringly at a state of liberation. With the thought of finding their own voice keeping the person “company”, the person “strode deeper and deeper into the world” (92). Mary Oliver uses “strode deeper and deeper” to give significance to the moment (92). The person in the poem has attained an astronomical breakthrough and with this breakthrough the person is going to continue to become more of a free person who has a say in what the person wants. This strive of persistence and perseverance of the person established confidence in knowing that freedom to do what the person wants is possible. Now being one’s own person “determined to do the only thing [the person] could do- determined to save the only life [the person] could save,” himself (92). The ending gives a tone of liberation and gratification. The person is no longer bound to the past, has altercated with life’s tribulations, and the sole thing left to do is save himself, and that is what the person does. 

The intensity and affliction at the beginning of this journey are derived from the various obstacles the person had to face. Throughout the exertion of battle of proclaiming the right of freedom and becoming one’s own person, we see that the diction, tone, and imagery began as   somber and tribulation, such as “shouting their bad advice” and “melancholy and terrible” (92). Then, the diction, tone, and imagery shift to a sense of determination and liberation, “stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds,” “[the person] strode deeper and deeper into the world,” and “determined to do the only thing you could do” (92). The person surmounted the trials to find freedom and while doing so found their own voice and mind; their own person.
