Adrienne Rich uses a style of writing which seems direct, but packs a much more significant punch when looked at deeply. In her work “Diving into the Wreck”, she uses the theme of exploration to discuss the act of diving to a ship wreck. Several hints can be seen in the poem that suggests that it is about more than just diving to look at a ship which has sunk. Rich says, “The words are purposes. The words are maps” implying that her writing may be a map to something more significant than a shipwreck, as well as packing a purpose behind each line which is more than just a story. Most divers dive to see a shipwreck in order to analyze the myths associated with it, as well as to see why it may have happened. Instead, Rich says “The wreck and not the story of the wreck, the thing itself and not the myth” which is unusual for a diver to say since most people dive for the story itself. To me as a reader, this was significant because it seemed to imply yet again that this “exploration of a shipwreck” so to say, is actually more than that, and may actually be an exploration of human contact with nature. The reason I came up with that is because the thing itself, or the act of diving itself, may be more important here than the shipwreck. The shipwreck seems like a backdrop to a main scene in a play.

As Rich discusses details like “The oxygen immerses me” and “I go down. My flippers cripple me”, one comes to realize that humans are at the control of nature. The detailed description of the power that nature has over humans can be seen as she dives under water and is very limited with her abilities. She also says that “the (power of) the sea is another story” implying that it is so immense; it requires a separate story to tell it.

As readers of this “deep poem” we are immersed into nature, and everything to us seems different than we are used to. Nature takes over this poem like a coral reef takes over a shipwreck and we are literally surrounded by it. The contact humans have with nature during a dive is the most intense that is possible. Rich explains the details that are visible during this dive and the significance of the literal explanation is overpowering. One feels powerless to the effects and powers of nature, which in this case is the sea. Overall, her work is amazing and makes the reader excited to read more.

In the narrative Bartleby The Scrivener by Herman Mellville, Bartleby seems to be an oddball type of character. He is a man of little words and emotion. He is portrayed as a lonely man. The idea of death is present around him in many cases. He is described as “writing silently and palely” which is a description often associated with death (301). As noted by the narrator, “Bartleby did nothing but stand at his window in his dead-wall revery” (311). Upon beginning his work in the office, he often times stared out the window at a dead wall. The wall is described to be dormant and still mimicking a dead person. Bartleby has the characteristics of a dead man when looking at that wall. He is motionless and pale for hours on end as he stares out the window at a blank, bare, and still wall. When the narrator moves offices, Bartleby stays in the same spot in the old office. Like a dead person who is unable to move, Bartleby refuses to leave, “he refuses to do anything” (317). When Bartleby died in the prison yard, His motionless pale body laying on the ground mimics that of his body when he was alive and staring out the window. After his death, it is revealed to the narrator that Bartleby used to work at the dead letter office, an office sorting mail which was not delivered to deceased people. This is yet another image of death that is associated with Bartleby. Little is known of his actual life, but from what is known, he was a depressed, lifeless, and strange person. The idea of death while he is alive seemed to foreshadow his actual death in the end. He had given up on everything including himself.