"Diving into the Wreck"

In the poem "Diving into the Wreck", by Adrienne Rich, many different images are revealed. The more dominant images also happen to be the larger images such as "the ladder", "the ocean", and "the wreck". The smaller images are used to support the more dominant images. Each of the smaller images like "the grave and awkward mask" and "the body-armor of black rubber" are constant through the poem and enhance the excitement and the adventure of "diving into the wreck". All the smaller images enhance the largest most significant image, "the wreck".

Throughout the poem, Rich uses the water as a medium of reality. Reality, like the ocean, is vast and subtly ever changing. "Rung after rung and still/ the oxygen immerses me...there is no one to tell me when the ocean will begin", it is basically impossible to distinguish reality from the unreal because who is to say where either border begins. As the diver starts to delve deeper into the water the increase in the pressure surrounding the diver causes the diver to start "blacking out". The ocean, reality, is full of two much pressure, trivial details of everyday life and societal issues. The diver can not interact with reality without the aid of her "armor of black rubber" and "grave and awkward mask". She is unable to deal with the reality without something to cushion the blows of it, her "armor". 

Before the diver ever descends into the ocean, she declares herself ready on the basis that she has read "the book of myths" and that "the words are maps". She has prepared herself for her descent into the ocean with a map that will guide her, even though the ocean is ever changing. If we continue to view the ocean as reality, the book symbolizes a map that will help the diver to navigate her way through reality and make sense of what she encounters. As the diver becomes more accustomed to the ocean, the diver also becomes more open and understanding of reality. The diver realizes that she cannot change reality but yet she can use the tools she has to make it easier to navigate and understand.