Diving into the Wreck: 

We see more of the same in Diving into the Wreck as Rich presents the image of ‘a book of
myths/ in which our names do not appear’. Myth is the center of not just the history and
culture of the ancient world, but even our modern world today as works such as the
Odyssey and the Iliad still feature heavily in everyday life. By using the image of a book of
myths, Rich shows how deeply ingrained this masculine domination is in our world, as
myths suggest a resonance to the classical times, many years ago, which here she
associates with masculine dominance. With the importance of myth throughout time in
mind, Rich shows how strong the need for change and attainment of rights for women is as
it is deeply rooted in society and thus needs to be changed forcefully, as it will not change of
its own accord, as it has not changed, like myth, for generations.

Other than that At the poem’s beginning Rich makes sole use of “I”, then varying midway
through the poem to change to “we”, making such remarks as “We are, I am, you are”. In
doing so Rich acheives the feeling that all of women are affected by and included in this
poem. By including ‘a book of myths/ in which/ our names do not appear’ Rich explictly
includes all women in the poem; myth, as said, is centre to the history and culture of our
world, but women are not included and thus are of another world, history and culture; they
gather in this poem as Rich calls out them. The poem takes place in a ‘wreck’ which Rich
dives into, and there is a resulting feeling of apprehension in the poem. Rich enters the
wreck preparing for battle, or some form of attack, with ‘the edge of the knife-blade’ checked
and wearing ‘the body-armor of black rubber’. Throughout the poem this feeling of
apprehension progresses, with the ladder which is ‘always there/ hahows again the need for
attaining rights for women. In another relationship there is no equality between the
masculine and the feminine. The Uncle dominates and controls the woman, emphasized
explicitly by the weight of said image which does not allow Aunt Jennifer to move away from
the Uncle and live her own life; the image of the weighty wedding band is used to explictly
represent the emotional and psychological hold the Uncle has over Aunt Jennifer.Aunt
Jennifer’s Tigers were life stopping for no one is examined here.

No matter who dies, life will not stop and this is evidenced by the mention that even when
Aunt Jennifer dies, her ‘tigers in the panel that she made/ Will go on prancing, proud and
unafraid’. However this can again be linked to the feminist aspect of Rich’s poetry. The
tigers can be seen as members of the uncaring, masculine-dominated world who turns a
blind eye to the sufferings of the female. Even though they acknowledge the presence of
women (they are Aunt Jennifer’s tigers), in the wider sphere of things they are uncaring,
‘prancing, proud and unafraid’. Aunt Jennifer’s death can be seen as an example of female
suffering, and that even when this occurs, the masculine-dominated world is still uncaring.
Here Rich achieves seriousness with the sombre mention of death in the poem. Despite the
poem encompassing a ‘world of green’ in which the tigers ‘prance’, Rich does not forget that
death is included in this world and that there will come a time ‘When Aunt is dead’. In a
more sombre note, Rich displays the callousness of the male mistreatment of women by
including a biological reference in her poem, that all males come from and because of
women. By the mention of the Aunt Jennifer’s tigers ‘that she made’ we get a sense of how
cruel males act towards women, as they reject and mistreat a section of society who are
inherent to their existence. Like the tigers were made by Aunt Jennifer, all males come from
the female womb; this seem to have been forgotten or even ignored by the males; Rich
symbolizes this by the continuing ‘proud, uncaring’ prancing of the tigers, even after their
creator is dead.nging innocently’ and the silently circling merman. It is like watching a horror
movie and waiting for the monster to attack. Rich aims to achieve this here, as she enters
the wreck that is part of the male-dominated world and thus shows how serious the problem
is; she presents to us thus the constant fear of females who are constantly fearing attack
from the males.

Based on the Poem ‘’Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers’’ The image of ‘The massive weight of Uncle’s
wedding band’ which ‘Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand’s s