"Diving into the Wreck" was written smack dab in the middle of the women's movements. On an upper level of this poem, the reader experiences a scuba diving trip to the bottom of the ocean; but on a deeper level, the poem describes the journey and transformation of a woman apprehensively reaching inside of herself to see what hurt, pain, and suffering have done to her heart and soul. Looking at the poem, one must consider the larger cultural position of women. Most women in that time were just considered property and pretty

The poem and movie both express journeys of transformation. Expressions of change and death are used to more fully impact the audience. It is easy to understand these changes by critically evaluating the works. Self-discovery is evident in both, for example, when Rich first experiences what it's like to descend into the darkness, and Wyatt realizing he's lost his innocence. The limits of social convention have really impacted these characters, both in the poem and in the movie. The journey on which the characters transformed and became more aware of the realness of life, becomes a "book of myths" to the reader. There are always social conventions and the people who strive to overcome them, that is what leads to and causes self-discovery. This is how Rich and Wyatt and Billy shaped the minds of many men and women and led them to change in ways no one thought possible.

There are several landmark events that inspire this transformation in the men. The camp scene with the hitchhiker-it ends with the hitchhiker saying, "I never wanted to be anybody else." This struck the viewer as strange, so Billy and Wyatt might have thought the same. The director doesn't flash back to their faces, but continues on to the next scene. Hateful townspeople let Billy and Wyatt experience something they had never seen or even thought of before. They appeared very naive to the ways of these "settled" people. The director did an excellent job of showing the extent to which these people were affected and how their attitudes changed the Riders. From the time that George was introduced, he appeared fully innocent, in fact, in the movie, he represents the "innocence of America," and when he was killed, it was like death of innocence in America. That was a sad time for the Riders, there was a definite transformation there. In the short time between George's death and the Rider's deaths, viewers saw how changed the riders were. Wyatt's line "We really blew it this time," expresses what they are feeling. They had lost a lot of their own innocence that they didn't even realize they'd had. This scene was the heart of the movie, it expresses the discovery of the realness of life, that hurt and pain are everywhere and everyone is susceptible to it.

There are tools that are important to making a trip under the ocean; in this case, the author has read the "book of myths"(line 1), which are steps that have worked for people who have gone under before. To the reader this is an important "book" because it carries the stories of women who have freed th

Some common words found in the essay are:
Diving Wreck, Riders George, American Dream, Billy Wyatt, Easy Rider, Wild Wild, Wyatt Billy's, Adrienne Rich, Wyatt Billy, realness life, Captain America, billy wyatt, social convention, social conventions, appear book, limits social, limits social convention, breaking limits social, movie expresses, breaking limits, compared movie, movie easy, compared movie easy, movie easy rider,
Approximate Word count = 1724
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)