
Mary Oliver creates a story of a person’s arduous voyage of freedom after he/she realize he/she do not want to do what other people say and become his/her 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, diction, personification, imagery, and tone exemplify the message being displayed on the writing. “The Journey” progresses into displaying a universal message that every person can relate to. That message is, no matter how difficult the journey may be, a person should proclaim the right of freedom and become his/her own person.

Becoming one’s own person starts off with the realization that he/she are not able to do what he/she wants 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,” he/she decided not to listen and do what the people told he/she to do (92). She uses the word “shouting” and “tremble” to emphasize the vexatious tension and hostile tone to present the desideratum of him/her. When someone yells, it also shows authority over whomever the person is yelling at; in this case the main character of the story. This is an implication that the people yelling at him/her to stay, not only need him/her but want to have full power and control over him/her. 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 holding he/she back from being him/herself do not want him/her to leave; they want him/her to “’Mend [their] life!’” (92). The people are family members and friends who know him/her, and the people think that he/she can help them fix whatever is wrong in the people’s lives. The only life anyone can save is his/her own, the people want him/her to do an impossible task of fixing something he/she themselves should be fixing. This exhibits the control the people think they have over him/her. The “voices cried” to show sympathy and get him/her to stay, “But [he/she] didn’t stop” (92). The people tried everything possible to get him/her to stay, ever begging and showing sympathy. The persistency of being free to do what he/she desires was stronger than the hostility of the people not wanting the person to go. He/she went and freed him/herself from the control of the people. 

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 marrow of the person’s being (92). When Mary Oliver says the “wind pried” it pronounces the effect of the forcefulness of this attack on he/she (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 him/her from surmounting their goals. He/she faces monumental adversity while endeavoring a transformative objective.

He/she is starting to realize that he/she is becoming his/her own person, “But little by little, as [he/she] 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 him/her, and the “sheets of clouds” are the negativity and truculence of the people trying to stop him/her 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 him/her are going to do. 

Although the journey was laborious and wearisome with all the tribulations and trying to seek for freedom, he/she found himself. The person enduringly discovered “a new voice which [he/she] slowly recognized as [his/her] own” (92). At this moment, he/she has been put through arduous encumbrances, and is enduringly at a state of liberation. With the thought of finding their own voice keeping he/she “company,” he/she “strode deeper and deeper into the world” (92). Mary Oliver uses “strode deeper and deeper” to give significance to the moment (92). He/she in the poem has attained an astronomical breakthrough and with this breakthrough he/she is going to continue to become more of a free person who has a say in what he/she 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 [he/she] could do- determined to save the only life [he/she] could save,” himself (92). The ending gives a tone of liberation and gratification. He/she is no longer bound to the past, has altercated with life’s tribulations, and he/she is finally saved. 

The intensity and affliction at the beginning of this journey are derived from the various obstacles he/she had to face. Throughout the exertion of battle of proclaiming the right of freedom and becoming one’s own person, the reader can 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,” “[he/she] strode deeper and deeper into the world,” and “determined to do the only thing you could do” (92). He/she surmounted the trials to find freedom and while doing so found their own voice and mind; their own person.
