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 images and ideas in Rich's poem "Diving into the Wreck" follow a speaker through a journey of self-discovery and are used to introduce issues of feminism and sexism and to explain how these issues affect the speaker in the poem.
             The image of the sun first appears in stanza 1 "the sun-flooded schooner"(11). Here the speaker is making reference to the underwater explorer Cousteau aboard the sun-flooded schooner. This image of an underwater diver and writer contrasts the speaker in the poem because the speaker is also preparing to go diving as Cousteau did. However, the speaker is diving alone and Cousteau was equipped with a team of "assiduous"(10) men. The contrast betwee...