In her poem, \u201cDiving into the Wreck,\u201d Adrienne Rich explores a common narrative and fear from the LGBTQ community over the consequence of being different. While for many LGBTQ people, acknowledging their identity and \u2018coming out\u2019 has a liberating effect, other people may face rejection or violence in their lifetime. On the extreme end, this may lead to suicide. But Rich\u2019s poetry shows how these outcomes are a \u201cmyth\u201d (63). ‘Myth\u2019 may refer to either a traditional story which seeks to explain or justification for something, or a commonly held misconception. Rich plays off this pun to push and show how there\u2019s more fluidity and uncertainty within the LGBTQ community\u2019s tragic history and what it might mean for its future.<\/p>\n
The theme of uncertainty carries into the beginning of the poem, where a diver prepares to explore a shipwreck, \u201cFirst having read the book of myths\u201d (1). Building off the pun, the dive into the water begins to resemble an investigation. The double meaning of \u201cmyth,\u201d a falsehood or origin story carries several implications for the diver, who later comes to identify with the shipwreck, \u201cwe are the half-destroyed instruments \/ that once held to a course\u201d (83-84). In comparing herself to the shipwreck, Rich establishes a metaphor between the \u2018myth\u2019 of the wreck and her own personal narrative. The \u2018dive\u2019 therefore, becomes a symbol for introspection. However, her use of the pronoun, \u201cwe\u201d (83) highlights that this myth goes beyond a single narrative. The \u2018wreck\u2019 and the \u2018myth\u2019 of the wreck belong to and are, in fact, echoed by a community.<\/p>\n
In order to evaluate the metaphor, it is therefore worth exploring the \u2018myth\u2019 of the shipwreck. For this, Rich leaves several clues. Harking back to the line, \u201cwe are the half-destroyed instruments \/ that once held to a course\u201d (83-84), it\u2019s implied that the ship sunk, because it changed directions or went off \u201ccourse\u201d (84). This is further evidenced by the imagery on line 86, \u201cthe fouled compass.\u201d Thus, the \u2018myth\u2019 of the wreck could be read as a fear over what happens when someone dares to be different. Given that LGBTQ people have existed on the margins of society (and historically faced violence because of their differences), this would make them especially vulnerable to this narrative.<\/p>\n
The final appearance of the word, \u201cmyth\u201d cycles back to the first line with some important distinctions, \u201ca book of myths \/ in which \/ our names do not appear\u201d (92-94). Notably, \u201cthe book\u201d (1) becomes \u201ca book\u201d (92), indicating that the myth of the shipwreck no longer has the same definiteness. While breaking off and daring to be unique are key characteristics in the LGBTQ community, this uniqueness doesn\u2019t have to lead to a \u2018wreck.\u2019 Rich escapes that fate, declaring \u201cour names do not appear\u201d (94). Rather than a celebration, this conclusion has a melancholy tone, as we are reminded how many LGBTQ people suffered in the past. The narrative is therefore a myth in the same way that the poem\u2019s wreck is \u201cevidence of [the] damage\u201d (66). Both serve as reminders of what many had to go through. But more optimistically, the poem also dispels the deterministic aspects of the narrative, showing that LGBTQ people are free from reliving the tragedies of history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In her poem, \u201cDiving into the Wreck,\u201d Adrienne Rich explores a common narrative and fear from the LGBTQ community over the consequence of being different. While for many LGBTQ people, acknowledging their identity and \u2018coming out\u2019 has a liberating effect, other people may face rejection or violence in their lifetime. On the extreme end, this … Continue reading Blog #1 – Exploring “Myth” in Adrienne Rich’s “Diving into the Wreck”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4220,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169398],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4220"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}