Hello all,

I'm having a tab wee bit of trouble with the poem journey to the interior by Magaret Atwood. If anyone has read it, .... HOPEFULLY then please elaborate.!

hidden, go here:

[lorenwebster.net] />
and here:

[www.lib.unb.ca] />

Les

Here's a copy of the poem:

JOURNEY TO THE INTERIOR

There are similarities
I notice: that the hills
which the eyes make flat as a wall, welded
together, open as I move
to let me through; become
endless as prairies; that the trees
grow spindly, have their roots
often in swamps; that this is a poor country;
that a cliff is not known
as rough except by hand, and is
therefore inaccessible. Mostly
that travel is not the easy going

from point to point, a dotted
line on a map, location
plotted on a square surface
but that I move surrounded by a tangle
of branches, a net of air and alternate
light and dark, at all times;
that there are no destinations
apart from this.


There are differences
of course: the lack of reliable charts;
more important, the distraction of small details:
your shoe among the brambles under the chair
where it shouldn't be; lucent
white mushrooms and a paring knife
on the kitchen table; a sentence
crossing my path, sodden as a fallen log
I'm sure I passed yesterday

(have l been
walking in circles again?)


but mostly the danger:
many have been here, but only
some have returned safely.


A compass is useless; also
trying to take directions
from the movements of the sun,
which are erratic;
and words here are as pointless
as calling in a vacant wilderness.

Whatever I do I must
keep my head. I know
it is easier for me to lose my way
forever here, than in other landscapes


Les

Thanks alot for the help I appreciate it alot. Now the funnest thing is that I Have to compare robert frost's poem "The road not taken" and "Journey to the interior"...splendid

cheers,
Hidden

Hidden, these guidelines might help you plan your essay:

Decide on the theme of your essay first, after having read both poems and knowing what they both say. The statement of your theme should be in the introduction of your essay. You might say something such as this: "Both of these poems deal with the subject of journeys..." Then go on to tell the reader what topics you will discuss. Divide the essay into several different topics. For instance:

1. Subject matter
2. Rhyme pattern/or lack of same
3. Language (figurative, realistic, images brought by it)
4. Tone (serious, jovial, friendly)
5. Connotation/meaning (both real and suggested)
6. Effect on the reader (emotions triggered by the poems)




Use examples from each of the poems to illustrate how they compare/or contrast on each of these points. Be specific, quote lines from the poem(s) to give the reader a better idea of what you're talking about. The more specific you are in giving examples, the easier it will be to write a specified number of words for the assignment.


Les



Post Edited (11-04-04 21:38)

Well, to me, Atwood's punctuation is distracting, but I think the first thing to determine is what she means by 'interior'. Is she traversing the realms of her mind? Perhaps it is a dream sequence? Is she showing how each of us must become a philospher to discover the hidden secrets of life?

It seems that way on first reading, but if we must compare it to Frost, then I think we have to assume Atwood and Frost are talking about choices we all have to make on the journey through life.

I'm in the same boat as hidden. Need do a feature article of three texts - Journey to the Interior, a radio exerpt, and a text of my own chosing. I'm thinking 'Wild Things'. My theme will be 'that imaginative journey's are a mirror, even through some distortion, or reality'

Any ideas on how I could link Wild Things to JTTI as well as my theme?

What's 'Wild Things'? That movie with Matt Dillon and Denise Richards?

heh i guess you live in nsw and are in yr 11 like me =p
if your doing inner journey atwoods poem is pretty good.
However The road not taken, though a great poem, is going to be (over)done by the vast majority of studentz so atwoods is a good replacement. I wouldnt recommend doing wild things as a movie, get more marks if its something arty sounding, else i would have done matrix reloaded...

hope that helps

hi, i need to analise the poem "journry tothe interior" by Margaret atwood for a speach in english...plzzz can u help me....i need to explain the "inner journey she takes"...plzzz send me sumthing that can help me...Manny

I believe Slide Rule may be referring to an illustrated story for children which has become an ever-in-print classic: 'Where The Wild Things Are', by Maurice Sendak.

hey, i'm in the same boat. i have to analise 'journey to the interior' in relation to inner journey aswell. but i have not been having much luck. if you could help me, it would be greatly appreciated. thanks heaps. mell

do your own work, you wont learn unless it comes from inside you.

hey i wanna use journey to the interior for my speech on physical journey is that okay????????? oh n i also need summary of the text if anyone has got that could they show me plzzzzzzzzzz

thanks lattas

[tinyurl.com]

well, i dont really understand jpurney to the interior. im doing a speech on physical journeys, my teacher said it would be great to include, but i just dont understand it.... can someone helpHugh Clary wrote:

Double click this:

[tinyurl.com]

i am needing to analyse 'journey to the interior' as an imaginative text, along with 'on giants shoulders' by melvin bragg and i chose the film 'eternal sunshine of the spotless mind'.
any advice that has alread been given or new stuff or whatever...i mean i would appreciate any help i could get, thanks

'Journey to the Interior' by Margaret Atwood is a text that uses physical or material things to demonstrate an inner journey. It uses the metaphor of the Canadian landscape to explain the journey of life and the inner journey of self-discovery. The title 'Journey to the Interior' implies of a journey from the exterior reality to the inner depths of the human psyche. In historical times the title would imply the discovery of a new land, exploration into the unknown that could involve danger. Similar idea is presented in this poem, Margaret Atwood is delving into the mysteries of the human mind, uncertain and apprehensive "many have been here, but only some have returned safely".

Hope this helps.

Journey to the interior uses heaps of poetic devices to achieve the inner journey by expressing how it affects the peron emotionally etc now ways in which to break it down and analysis this is to take each line and find the meaning and how it could reflect the emotional and inner but alos the imainative journey. make sure u focus on the syle and this will help
also i have my own request
i need to find to textx which reflect the imaginative journey they can be poem visual representations etc
its for a hsc assesment and i am finding it difficult to find texts so any suggestions would be great as i have to analysis them
it has to be aboutthe imaginative jorney though....

hey check out

[hsc.csu.edu.au] />
and go to english section.

tarz

i did for my ass task Interstate 60 by Bob Gale. its a freakin awesome movie and it has all the components of an imaginative journey.
hope it helps
both video ezy and civic video have it. its usually in the new release section even tho its 3 years old
good luck
if anybody is reading this today, 16th march 2005, please email me at flavius@gmail.com cos i really need help with the following question:
analyse the composers use of 3 techniques to present perspectives on imaginative journeys"
i have to choose a text from the stimulus bookelt (that everybody gets) and i might do journey to the interior, or maybe the book cover to the ivory trail. i dont know yet cos they all suck. i just need easy techniques, but not the really obvious ones.
btw belinda, i can send you my response to the contributions of Interstate 60
to my understanding of the concept of i.j. cos i had it checked out by an english teacher and its pretty good!

Heres an analysis i did a few weeks ago for Journey to the Interior, for my yr12 course. Hope it helps!My email listed is false by the way.


Usually, a person would embark on an imaginary journey which would ideally take place somewhere which provides a pleasant escape from the real world. These destinations are usually part of the physical world as seen pictured within the mind of the journey-taker. In the prose-poem “Journey to the Interior,” by Margaret Atwood, the imaginary journey is actually set in the composer’s own mind. Through reading the poem, one comes to realise that the poet is exploring her own memory of an actual physical journey, and comparing the experience to that of the event that took place in the real world. Along the way she notices similarities and differences, and encounters various obstacles, presented by her brain as a confusing web of random images and thoughts.

A sophisticated use of poetic devices and language techniques has been carefully used by the composer to convey her imaginary journey. First person narration has been used to convey the composer’s intimate feelings and thoughts. Personal pronouns such as “I,” “my,” and “me” show how the composer journeys through and experiences the inner workings of her own brain.
Formal language, including the title, has been used to directly refer to the imaginary journey within the text. The title, “Journey to the Interior” and the quote “Travel is not the easy going from point to point…..but that I move surrounded by a tangle of branches,” refer directly to the primary plot element of the imaginary journey through the reoccurrence of journey-related words- other words include “destination,” “walking,” “move” and “path.” The line “words here are as pointless as calling in a vacant wilderness,” creates a similitude between the composer’s own mind and some sort wild jungle. This forces the responder to connote that the composer’s journey is taking part in a wild and dangerous mind, which is unforgiving with its densely crowded thoughts.
A very complex punctuation and grammatical structure reflects the workings of the composer’s brain as it erratically darts between images, and can be seen in the quote, “under the chair where it shouldn’t be; lucent white mushrooms and a paring knife on the kitchen table; a sentence crossing my path.” Along with more uses of comas, colons and semi-colons, the eccentric use of punctuation effectively conveys the abruptness of the composer’s journey as it skips between different memories and thoughts. As it moves quickly, the journey also encounters impediments along the way.
The composer’s own voice emerges in the similitude between the “sentence crossing my path” and the “fallen log.” The occurrences of the kitchen table image, and the chair which doesn’t belong clearly shows that these unintentional insertions of random thoughts and images become obstacles in the composer’s journey through her mind. Key descriptive words have also been used to form the image of the journey taking place in a confusing environment. Words such as “tangle,” “net” and “branches” bring connotations from the responder who refers to the composer’s mind as being a complicated web of thoughts, images and memories. Additionally, a confused and bewildered mood is thus created by the composer through these descriptive words and then conveyed to the responder.
All of the included techniques have conclusively shown that the imagined journey undertaken by Margaret Atwood in her poem “Journey to the Interior” is boundless. The composer’s mind, and everyone else’s mind for that matter, is a completely indecipherable code of a lifelong accumulation of memories which cannot be mapped, or chartered, or conquered. Thus, a journey through the mind is an endless one.

thanks so much
i'm basically gonna build my response around that!!
10 minutes ago i was in a state of nervosity and confusion, now im calm and happy

do you also do extension english, ben?
cos if you do, we should keep in touch!

To andrew despi,
i posted an analysis on journey to the interior for you guys which is completely original and got full marks. Wouldn't mind some stuf on interstate 60. That would help coz i gotta hand in three analysis pieces on movies and i've already chosen Big Fish and The Never-Ending Story and just need another movie. WB on this iste if you can. thnx

nah no extension, but definately be back here again in the future to get some help from u guys.

ok man what address should i send my response for interstate 60 to?

you can send it to my email no i reactivated it. SO its big_bad_benny@hotmail.com.thnx i'll be in touch

Well well well, it was like wow,

Andrew can u give me your email sometime in the future......

this is my email. i snet you an email to your hotmail address, if you didnt get it just email me at flavius@gmail.com

ben is it?
that analysis of journey to the interior you poste was SO much help......just like the other kid i was freaking out.. but now i'm the perfect picture of calmness!!
thanx

HELP!!!! I have an exam tomorrow and am meant to be writing about this poem and I really don't get it. Not so much analysis but understanding.

hey i need help for The road not taken can any1 help me? thanks