Submerge!

Adrienne Rich writes “Diving Into The Wreck” and parallels growing up and encountering real world to diving into a black, unknown oceanic world. Although the poem is significantly about (at least on the surface) diving into an ocean, I chose a set of pictures that symbolized my innocence and naivety and the transition towards what we call “the Real World.” Reflecting on baby pictures, I think, gives me insight as to how I was as a person compared to who I am now. Often I cannot think of myself as changing, nor can I see my day-to-day or month-to-month physical change, but seeing things from the third-person allows further insight. Whenever a third party insights on my life, there are certain things I can discover. Viewing past photographs allows me to be the third party, and these images mirrored what Rich was writing about in “Diving Into The Wreck.”

“The Book of Myths,” “The Camera,” The “Knife-blade and Body Armor” “Grave and Awkward Mask” in the first paragraphs talk about a childhood experience. I recently heard from a suite-mate of mine that his mom lost both his jobs due to the school district canceling music and art programs. I was taken aback, because although logically science, math, English are more core components to American education, I don’t agree with striking down creativity realms that children enter through art and music. Childhood myths – we each create our own “Book of Myths” – are a magical part to most children. Children cherish what they learned about themselves or others as a youth, and hold on to these things as they enter “the Real World.” As a child, my brother and I would go on space adventures in our red wagon, create our own games (including Ace of Spades, where we threw cards at each other and if you were hit by the ace of spades you died). Unfortunately, we don’t spend as much time anymore because we are busy doing our own things, but I can appreciate the time we spent together. In the poem, Rich is prepared for the transition, but puts on a “mask” signifying that she is hesitant about moving on, cautious of the dangers, not fully mature or comfortable in revealing herself. Likewise, I believe many kids hide themselves from their surrounding, but slowly transitions by little steps. Adrienne mentions a ladder and says, “I go down” once, then “I go down” another to show gradual movement.

After Rich submerges in the ocean she mentions how the ocean is so big and how she is overwhelmed by possibilities. The vastness and newness of the ‘new life’ causes her to be confused, while she sees the more accustomed and older folk are wise in the real world. She says although she is overwhelmed, she won’t simply submerge into the new world she is in. Her reasoning is because she is looking for the wreck, but I interpreted it as everyone enters the world fulfilling their own purpose. However long a person takes to find his/her ‘purpose,’ s/he can then see the world in a new light. “The damage that was done” and the outcome which is “permanent” both affect people in the long-run. I feel like this transitional period was mostly in Jr. High and High school for me. I always aspired to be something greater than what I had been taught to know. Wasn’t for a while until I realized I really wanted to achieve my dreams. Not my high school dreams, but childhood dreams. Almost seems like we have these dreams as kids, but as we get older the harsher reality of the world tells us that achieving the goals are more difficult if not impossible. The process which one achieves his/her childhood dreams is the “wreck” of the poem, but whatever happens in the end, the steps we took to get there are “permanent.”

That leaves the end of the poem, where Adrienne Rich removes the mask and is finally comfortable in the giant ocean. The mermaids signify different things: the female with streaming dark hair similar that echoes the darkness when she first entered, and the male with an “armored body” which she first entered the ocean with. Yet, the tone at the end says that she has experienced everything, and has come out overall better, and more realized of the world. I can’t say I’ve reached that point yet, but the last picture I chose showed me in a Mexico trip last summer before college, possibly symbolic of the “looking-ahead” and “growing up” undertones of this poem. It also just happens that I am copying a mermaid!

Here am I in Kindergarten, visiting Alaska with my family (posing here with my brother on the left, me on the right, probably back when we had more fun together):

Here in high school, trying to achieve the most I could and

Summer Before College: