Diving into the Metaphors of Feminism: Analyzing "Diving into the Wreck" Anonymous College

Adrienne Rich’s “Diving into the Wreck” explores the fight for feminism at the height of the Civil Rights period of the 1960’s and 1970’s. The poem’s metaphors are used to create a powerful sense of symbolism the audience can relate to, along with a specific tone that alternates between attachment and detachment to the wreck to provide a sense of being an outsider looking within the main subject of the poem. Mythical imagery is utilized in order to juxtapose the more serious nature of the subject, that women must regain control of their own lives and futures by learning from the mistakes of past generations regarding the equality of genders. Rich argues that women must not be afraid to explore their past in order to learn the truth and grow from it order to better the lives of their descendants.

The author weaves an abundance of metaphors throughout the poem which itself is an extended metaphor. The wreck referred to represents an internal wreck: both a wreck inside the narrator and a wreck in society, which so desperately needs to be fixed. The mention of a boat’s ladder that leads to the shipwreck the narrator explores is mentioned several times in the work and is metaphorical for how the narrator is not jumping into the...