A Journey of Discovery-Adrienne Rich's Diving into the Wreck

Upon studying the life and works of Adrienne Rich, one discovers that a lot of her literature envelope a desire to educate her readers. The poem “Diving into the Wreck” is no exception. Rich speaks and writes passionately about feminist freedoms and rights and she conveys these ideas to her readers through “Diving into the Wreck” by using the images of exploring an under water world, one not seen by many. She creates a mysterious, yet exhilarating journey to exploring feminism by taking the reader to a forgotten shipwreck. She also reaches the realm of many, including males with the image of the androgen. The speaker morphs into this aquatic being and then is male and female, ultimately suggesting that the underwater world of hidden feminist issues is not pertinent to just one sex or one race. In “Diving into the Wreck”, Rich identifies many aspects of life including reality, memory, emotions, and journeys and in each aspect the truth of feminist issues is shinning upon the speaker with the presence of sunlight. In this way, Rich is urging the reader to identify these issues instead of turning a blind eye as they will always be lingering just as the sunlight always shines down onto us. The imag

. . .

View the whole essay, without interruption

The ladder is the bridge between what is and what a person thinks should be. In stanza 3 light is mentioned again, “the blue light” (25). Rich herself describes the journey to enlightening society about feminism “an exhilarating time to be alive in a time of awakening consciousness,-it can also be confusing, disorienting and painful” (Adrienne Rich).

Along his or her journey of self-discovery, the speaker encounters the shipwreck that is memory, kept in tact by the depths of the sea. “Like memory, sea preserves traumas that can only be observed or inspected, never changed or revised” (Roger Gilbert). In this way, the speaker is also exploring a large entity in the poem, the wreck, and discovering the ins and outs of it as well. The color black appears again, the mermaids “dark hair”(71)

“streams black” (72) and the “armored body” (72) which parallels the “body armor” (5) of rubber that the speaker put on to prepare for his or her dive. The continuity of the journey may reside in others with the same urge to change the way society deals with feminism or sexism. However, the speaker is diving alone and Cousteau was equipped with a team of “assiduous”(10) men.

Part of the equipment that the speaker wears, the flippers, “cripple” (29) her as she immerses into the water. The rubber suit, flippers and mask are not just instruments the speaker is taking with her; she is actually putting them on. In the mind of a woman who might enter this under water world in search of her roles, this equality would seem ideal, as she would desire men and women to be equal in her world as well. The first step was for the speaker to reflect upon his or herself and feel equal. In this way, the environment where feminism is accepted and women are equals makes a woman feel comfortable with not wanting or having to act behind a disguise. This inequality is still present by the end of the poem, even though the speaker is in her own world discovering herself, because the reality is that men and women do not act equally.

Approximate Word count = 2790
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)

Simply subscribe to view this paper, and 100,000 others.