Ar Diving into the Wreck

Diving into the Wreck, by Adrienne Rich, is an account of a solitary diver encumbered by an identity not her own, and seeking to observe first-hand "the damage that was done" (54), she investigates a wreck at the bottom of the ocean--to bring back salvageable cargo in the form of a consolidated identity. Analyzing the poem reveals several problems, however. The diver turns the wreck into a place of formality--further suppressing the "thing itself". This action counteracts the belief that truth was recovered from the wreck. The role of power is also uncertain. The diver is in search of something that is greater than the opposition of sexes--male and female; the androgyny she returns with seems to have fulfilled her quest. These points of instability in the text lead us to question a few things. How is truth constructed? Is this new self, born from the wreck, any more sustainable than the old one?

In the sixth stanza of the poem we find out the diver's purpose is to "explore the wreck" and the thing she seeks is "the wreck and not the story of the wreck / the thing itself and not the myth" (54). She searches for some greater truth to be witnessed by her own eyes because the current story in "book of myths" does not satisfy her views. The diver tries to gain knowledge of this greater truth but the way it is pursued is problematic. She wants to show us the truth yet she tells it through the form of a story--another myth. She does not tell us the cause of the wreck and does not bring back any treasure for us to have direct observation. The diver's intentions are interrupted because of the key sources that are left out. This action intervenes between the wreck and the reader causing disruption.

The presence of the camera and the knife have a profound meaning. Since they remained unused, they further implicate a mythology. With our knowledge that the site is to be returned to (55), these ritual objects relegate the wreck as an idol for worship, which further conceals the truth, not reveal it. This mystification compresses history and counteracts the search for clarity presented in the poem. Ironically, she finds her way through the "book of myths", "where the words are maps" (54). The equipment she trusts the least is the only one of use. Perhaps the only way to the truth is through participation in myth and not through "the thing itself" as the diver suggests.

Structuring truth is only one problem. The role of power and how it coincides with choosing gender identities is another. The diver as she moves on throughout the story begins to drift away from the accepted model of gender put forth by society. As she takes the ladder "rung by rung" (53), she is ready to cross the threshold between air and water--man and woman. When she takes the final step, she plunges into a new world to find a new self awaiting for her. Rich seems to