confirmed by the fact that when the diver arrives
at the scene he/she indeed discovers the precious
metals that remain. It is as if the essence, the gem-
like quality of the inner self remains, even in the
midst of all the destruction that time and culture
have wrought on both men and women.
Other significant images, of knife and cam-
era, suggest an optimism, too. Culturally disad-
vantaged they may be, but women still possess the
tools they need to reexamine themselves and their
fate, and the same tools are possessed also by
men, should they decide to use them for a sim-
ilarly ruthless self-examination. The knife will cut
through everything that is false, and the camera
can record with photographic realism the truth.
As the saying goes, the camera does not lie.
One of the central ideas of ‘‘Diving into the
Wreck’’ is of a prevailing myth. The poem begins
and ends with reference to a book of myths, which
the speaker admits to having read; at the end of
the poem she claims to have not found his/her
name in it. The book of myths refers to the reality
that has been created by society, which distorts
both men’s and women’s understandings of them-
selves. Their true natures are not allowed to
appear in this book, recording as it does a false
history and a false culture that boys and girls are
nonetheless raised to believe in without question,
and which most adult men and women do not
challenge. In creating myths about women, men
have also created myths about themselves, which
meansthatbothsexes are equally trappedina web
of illusions about gender and identity.
But what exactly were those myths that
operated in American society during the 1950s
and 1960s, when Adrienne Rich was herself aWHAT
DO I READ
NEXT? The Fact of a Doorframe: Poems Selected
and New, 1950–1984 (1984), by Adrienne
Rich, is a collection largely culled from the
poet’s first nine books of poetry. Arranged
in chronological order, the selection gives a
good overview of how Rich’s poetry devel-
oped over the period of more than thirty
years.
No More Masks! An Anthology of Twenti-
eth-Century American Women Poets(1993),
edited and with an introduction by Florence
Howe, is an expanded and updated edition
of an anthology first published in 1973. The
anthology features over 400 poems by 104
poets from many different cultures and peri-
ods and includes a generous selection by
second-wave feminist writers.
Strike Sparks: Selected Poems, 1980–2002
(2004), by Sharon Olds, is a representative
selection from Olds’s seven published vol-
umes of poetry. Olds is one of America’s
leading female poets, popular with readers
and hailed by critics. Her work covers manyvital areas of human experience—including
childhood, marriage and children, sexuality,
and domestic and political violence—with
candor and unwavering insight.
The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty
Are Used against Women(2002), by Naomi
Wolf, was first published in 1992. It shows
the persistence, even after decades of the
women’s movement, of the supposedly
ideal images of women that appear in pop-
ular culture. Wolf argues that women
should accept their own natural beauty,
even if it does not conform to an ideal
imposed by society.
Faces of Feminism: An Activist’s Reflections
on the Women’s Movement(1997), by Sheila
Tobias, is largely a history of the women’s
movement in the United States from the
1960s to the 1980s. Tobias documents the
successes and failures of the movement and
also offers personal reflections about her
own involvement.Diving into the Wreck