Diving into the Wreck

     Through an analogy of scuba diving down into a wreck that many myths have been written about, Adrienne Rich cleverly brings up hints of feminism, gender, and history.  The speaker in the poem is adamant about one thing--she will not just hear about the wreck, she will experience the remains of it first-hand.  The speaker doesn't want to settle for what other people have said, but rather wants to form her own ideas.  "The thing I came for: / the wreck and not the story of the wreck / the thing itself and not the myth" (lines 61-63).  One image that comes up several times is that of the female figurehead that is on the front of the ship--"the drowned face always staring / toward the sun," (lines 64-65) "I am she: I am he / whose drowned face sleeps with eyes open," (lines 77-78).  The image presented is one of a woman who has been forgotten, left behind, yet still sees what is before her.  Rich compares this to women who has historically been marginalized.  Even though they played an important part in history, their "names to not appear" in the textbooks as prominent influences (line 94).  The speaker in the poem does not want to be marginalized, nor does she want to be one who marginalizes.  Therefore, she literally dives down into the wreck--the myth--in order to disperse the myths and figure out how they came to be.