Journey to the Interior by Margaret Atwood.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Journey to the Interior

Journey to the Interior by Margaret Atwood is a journey to the unknown, a journey within. This poem describes the human psyche by comparing it to the Canadian environment and natural landscape. Journey to the Interior is an 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 this phrase would imply the discovery of a new land, venturing into the unknown which could involve danger. This idea is similar 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".

The first stanza talks of the similarities between the human psyche and the environment. The images conveyed here are dark, this is no romantic bucolic picture of nature: here the "trees grow spindly; with their roots often in swamps". It is a "poor country". If this is a metaphor for her interior self, it is a cutting rejoinder to the glossy, self-help pop psychology that abounds today. Rather the interior self is vast, perhaps murky