In “Diving
into the Wreck” by Adrienne Rich, she talks about an adventure. Looking at the
text, there is nothing special about this poem. But the poem is an extended
metaphor for her life. A life that she learned thought reading, then decided to
experience it herself. The time was 1973, at middle of the feminist right movement.
The life was not just a metaphor for her, but all women; the life where they
share the same right as man. “First having read the book of myths” the first
line use the word ‘myths’ to show that to have equal right was a fantasy in the
old days; it is too good to be true. Then there comes the movement. Rich felt
it is she chance so she get herself ready like the diver before the dive. According
to her biography, she left her husband three years before this poem. Therefore
she was the only one in the dive. Also, it shows she was walking into her new life
alone. “First the air is blue and then it is bluer and then green and then
black…” As she dives in deeper into the new life, her expectation changed as
she describes the change in color. Living the life she wanted is difficult,
unlike those who were there before. So she tries to remember what came here
for. She was here to for a new life, not another story or myths. Therefore, she
was blending in with the wreck.
This is
woman telling the society about her experience feminism, a woman who has a
fantasy about a free world. But as she dives into it nothing has change. “The drowned face always staring toward the
sun” the direction of the sun is where Rich start the dive, we can understand
it as the life she left behind, a life where man still in charge. This shows
that even some people had set feet into this free world, but it can’t change the
reality it is still a male dominant world. Rich knows this also, so she writes herself
as a mermaid with no sex or both “I am she: I am he”. This way, she will have a
better point of view. But she just can’t get rid of her identity as a woman. That’s
why she wrote “our names do not appear” at the end to show that no matter how
hard they try, their identity will still determent their place in the society.
I like how you analyze the poem because I would not be able to see the correlation between the metaphors and her life if no one told me. The metaphors are ambiguous but your analyzes shows me that there is importance behind them. I think if you went into more details to how they are feminist and based on her life I would understand more but I like your correlations :)!
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting how you related the poem to Rich's life and other women's lives during the feminist rights movement. I felt that your arguments could use more detail, what kind of life did Rich want to live, those kind of ambiguities were a little confusing. Still a thought provoking piece.
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