It is no secret that Adrienne Rich was an advocate for feminism. She once said, “It's exhilarating to be alive in a time of awakening consciousness; it can also be confusing, disorienting, and painful.”1 In Rich’s “Diving into the Wreck,” she describes a woman looking for answers regarding the injustice to women in her society. Many readers see the piece in an autobiographical light, comparing “the wreck” to the poet’s personal life. However, one must carefully review the symbols that are present in her work in order to extract a purpose behind it. Rich uses the metaphor of a person diving down to a wreck to represent the deeper meaning of the journey for truth and the fight for respect for herself and her gender. In doing so, several inanimate objects come into play that must be analyzed to determine what is truly being explored.
In the first strophe of the poem, the woman is preparing for the dive, “First having read the book of myths.” Myths are usually a way of describing how something has come about, perhaps in this case the view of females in society. The character is coming into the situation with that knowledge, and it is possible that she will use it as a tool to challenge, and possibly change society’s perception. She also loads a camera, which suggests that she intends to take pictures for memories of where she is going. This alone tells the reader that she intends on coming back to where she is starting from (the ship) and that she will want to educate others of what she has learned.
As a part of preparation for the dive, the character puts on a “grave and awkward mask.” The adjectives used to describe the mask makes it seem like a hindrance to her, as something making her feel uncomfortable or holding her back. Rich chooses to describe it with word “the,” which creates a sort of distance between the woman and the things, mirroring the awkwardness that she feels wearing it. In a later strophe, however, Rich begins using “my” when referring to the mask, leading the reader to believe that its significance to the diver has changed. It now seems more a part of her as she is climbing down the ladder. Since masks are used by divers to see underwater, we might examine it as the character’s vision, allowing her to see things more clearly when she is below. This is how we can assume that the diver’s perception is different from societies in terms of women, and hence the reason for the dive is to educate herself so that she can persuade others to her perception. She then dives down into the ocean, seeing things from the common point of view, and taking on that position causes her to embrace it shortly, so much that “it is easy to forget what I came for / among so many who have always / lived here.”
Rich sets up the last four lines of the first strophe with this feeling that the woman is somewhat afraid as she is getting her equipment on. The woman says, “I am having to do this…here alone.” In the next strophe, however, the ladder comes in, which seems to be a symbol of strength or bravery in the woman. Rich describes the ladder as being “always there, hanging innocently” and says “We know what it is for, we who have used it.” The tone of these few lines insinuates a sort of frustration with women who do not use their “strength” in saying that “otherwise it is a piece of maritime floss some sundry equipment.” This small hint of irritation points to the idea that Rich may believe that the collective strength of women can encourage change.
In the next strophe, she says “I am she: I am he,” which is somewhat ambiguous. She refers to herself as a “mermaid” and also as “the merman in his armored body.” The reader gets a sense that this character being described feels a sense of beauty and strength, but also bravery and independence. During this time, for a woman to feel the strength of a man was unheard of. Rich is creating a uniform character that is reflected again later in the line “We are, I am, you are,” indicating her desire to involve not only women in her cause, but the general population, including men.
The last strophe of the poem, in a way, pulls everything together. It becomes clear that the woman wants to take the world on the journey she has been on to educate everyone and create a new view of women. She writes “by cowardice or courage / the one who find our way / back to this scene/ carrying a knife, a camera / a book of myths / in which / our names do not appear.” The reader notices that she alternates between singular and plural tenses, again emphasizing the fact that she wants us to view the character universally, as a woman, man, or group, society as whole.
“Diving into the Wreck” is a poem that tells the story of a woman on a quest to fight for the rights of women. She does this through an analogy of a diver going into the sea to examine a “wreck.” The diver goes in with knowledge of the history of patriarchy that has existed and with protection and a desire to learn more to empower herself and eventually, others too.
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