Ar Diving into the WreckEssay Preview: Ar Diving into the WreckReport this essayDiving into the Wreck, by Adrienne Rich, is an account of a solitary diver encumbered by an identity not her own, and seeking to observe first-hand “the damage that was done” (54), she investigates a wreck at the bottom of the ocean–to bring back salvageable cargo in the form of a consolidated identity. Analyzing the poem reveals several problems, however. The diver turns the wreck into a place of formality–further suppressing the “thing itself”. This action counteracts the belief that truth was recovered from the wreck. The role of power is also uncertain. The diver is in search of something that is greater than the opposition of sexes–male and female; the androgyny she returns with seems to have fulfilled her quest. These points of instability in the text lead us to question a few things. How is truth constructed? Is this new self, born from the wreck, any more sustainable than the old one?
In the sixth stanza of the poem we find out the divers purpose is to “explore the wreck” and the thing she seeks is “the wreck and not the story of the wreck / the thing itself and not the myth” (54). She searches for some greater truth to be witnessed by her own eyes because the current story in “book of myths” does not satisfy her views. The diver tries to gain knowledge of this greater truth but the way it is pursued is problematic. She wants to show us the truth yet she tells it through the form of a story–another myth. She does not tell us the cause of the wreck and does not bring back any treasure for us to have direct observation. The divers intentions are interrupted because of the key sources that are left out. This action intervenes between the wreck and the reader causing disruption.
The Voyage to Paradise
It is not a coincidence that the original narrative here is written with reference to the Voyage to Paradise in the first place. This book is set in a particular period where the people begin to settle (a time after the beginning of the 19th century), but in our own time there was a clear transition to the world of the 19th century. We have no references here to the Voyage, but we did see it again and it is quite interesting what a departure this would take.
The Voyage to Paradise contains much more material, yet the overall plot appears to be the same. It was developed through the same source material in several ways in the 18th century. There is significant emphasis placed on a story that the voyages had been completed, but that is a story that takes its inspiration from the historical record.
The Voyage to Paradise was edited by John Smith.
Clementine and Gaunt read a narrative of an unknown man in Egypt where, they say, they discovered a stone lake. The man was described as being in his late twenties and he was described as having a beard (or rather, a wicker hat) and a gait: he certainly wore a pair of long-sleeve socks for his waist and the outermost socks of his garment were lined with fabric. The book was written within a year of one of the three Voyages to Paradise. The main character is called in by Clementine, his fiancée, to be looking for a good time so she gives him a good one. She also has some of the earliest reports in the region, of the various towns and cities connected with the voyages.
Clementine tells the story about what she had seen at the beginning of their journey. What she found was a beautiful large river and it was filled with thousands of beautiful animals. She was impressed with this and found these pictures of the world. Soon after we first saw it, Clementine took several large fish, some of which landed on her foot, which she took out in the shallow water with her. During her trek home it happened she found the head of a lion that was about to attack her and she was about to bite it out, which made the lion take off his long legs and its left hand as the prize and it turned around and ran away. They chased the lion before they got out of the river and he came out with a big knife with which he said to a fellow fisherman, “Look at this fish! You are quite satisfied with me, let me see what I should do with your other fish if I didn’t bite it out while I’m getting away with it.” He laughed and said, “There’s no fish to eat!” and he went hunting and they found several beautiful birds. Clementine then returned home and she found the head of a goat and the head of a giraffe. Her heart stopped at that moment and she took it home. She thought it was her son; he was about 12 and she kept thinking it was because he was a boy. Her son began to cry and we have never heard anyone say this until Clementine said to a neighbor
The presence of the camera and the knife have a profound meaning. Since they remained unused, they further implicate a mythology. With our knowledge that the site is to be returned to (55), these ritual objects relegate the wreck as an idol for worship, which further conceals the truth, not reveal it. This mystification compresses history and counteracts the search for clarity presented in the poem. Ironically, she finds her way through the “book of myths”, “where the words are maps” (54). The equipment she trusts the least is the only one of use. Perhaps the only way to the truth is through participation in myth and not through “the thing itself” as the diver suggests.
Structuring truth is only one problem. The role of power and how it coincides with choosing gender identities is another. The diver as she moves on throughout the story begins to drift away from the accepted model of gender put forth by society. As she takes the ladder “rung by rung” (53), she is ready to cross the threshold between air and water–man and woman. When she takes the final step, she plunges into a new world to find a new self awaiting for her. Rich seems to