The Bridge Between: Individualism and Collectivism

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Ian Sefton (V00780981) Dr. Sanghara ENGL 146 September 17, 2014 The Bridge Between: Individualism and Collectivism ! ! Diving deep into the bounds of your internal existence to self-reflect is a necessary component of learning about yourself to grow as an individual and contribute to the collective society. This is present in the language and history of Adrienne Rich’s poem, “Diving into the Wreck”. It is will represented within the symbols relating to the strong emphasis of the ladder, the portrayal of the genders, and the knife, camera, and book of myths. ! The ladder is used as a symbol to represent the beginning of a journey for you, and you alone. “Hanging innocently” (15), “the ladder is always there” (14) gives the impression that the grand adventure for self-discovery is always present for anyone to grasp onto. However, ladders are typically only meant for one person to use at a time, so the journey must be done alone. “Rung after rung” (23) and “I crawl like an insect down the ladder” (30) show the slow process that is involved in finding yourself. This process is not only slow, but can be quite frightening as well, as seen in “there is no one / to tell me when the ocean / will begin” (31-33). Having no idea of what you are getting into, which in this case is the vast abyssal of an ocean, and having no one there with you is an incredibly lonely journey of solitude. This is where it gets interesting, because the concept of this particular character in the poem being alone is contradicted in two of the following lines “We know what it is for / we who have used it” (17-18), which could very well be hinting at how this discovery of one’s self is contributing to the collective. These lines are backed up by the fact that Adrienne Rich was heavily involved with movements in the Vietnam War and creating an equitable society through feminist movements.
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