Aging Theme Analysis

Told from the point of view of a 71-year-old man, “Journey” explores the theme of aging. Throughout the story, the narrator must navigate a world that discriminates against him because of his age. At first, he resists this ageism, displaying fierce self-confidence as he travels into the city to attend a meeting about the future of his land. However, after the city appropriates his land, preventing the narrator from leaving a legacy for his family, his confidence is replaced with a sense of alienation and failure. By tracing this decline of the narrator’s self-image, “Journey” demonstrates the tragedy of aging in a society that does not respect its elders. 

Throughout the story, the narrator must navigate a world that deems him irrelevant because of his age. In the beginning, the narrator’s family members condescend to him because of his age. As he is leaving home, they button his coat for him, warn him about the weather, and put money in his pocket. The narrator also feels that, especially in interactions with city officials over the family’s land dispute, his family members “[do] his talking for him.” These gestures clearly come from a place of care and even respect for the narrator, but they nevertheless relegate him to a position of inferiority because of his age. Additionally, on his train ride into the city, the narrator observes a society that prioritizes rapid change over the traditions of the past. From the fishermen ignoring the narrator’s traditional Māori knowledges about weather to development projects that build everything new so that “you’d never know where the old roads had been,” the world seems to deem old ways, and therefore elders themselves, irrelevant. Finally, the city planner clearly discriminates against the narrator because of his age. In addition to rudely suggesting that the narrator should not care what happens to his land because he will be dead soon, he calls the narrator “old man” in a derogatory way. Planning to turn his land into a parking lot, the city clearly sees the narrator as an irrelevance, an impediment to new change.

However, in the beginning of his trip, the narrator takes this ageism in stride, displaying self-confidence. He is very optimistic about the meeting, expecting to be able to celebrate his success afterward. This optimism demonstrates that he believes he is capable of asserting himself. He also feels physically able, despite his family’s assumptions that he is not. Walking to the meeting rather than riding the bus, he tells himself that “there’s nothing wrong with his legs.” Additionally, he takes pride in his many years of experience with the landscape, in both the rural and urban settings he travels through. When he gets to the city, he notes that “this bit of sea has been land for a long time now. And he’s been in all the pubs and been drunk in all of them.” In thinking this, he refuses to be labeled as an irrelevant old man: rather than making him less competent than younger people, the narrator implies, his age only makes him more knowledgeable.

After the unsuccessful meeting with the city planner, in which the city refuses to let the family continue to live on their land, the narrator replaces this self-confidence with a sense of impotency, physical inability, and pessimism. Unlike the narrator’s ancestors, who were able to ensure that the family survived together on the land, the narrator returns home unable to provide security for his nieces and nephews. This inability to leave a legacy fills him with shame, and “he [sits] on the edge of his bed for a long time looking at the palms of his hands.” This line, which ends the story, symbolizes the narrator’s sense of impotency: his hands, the very hands that helped his family survive starvation by gardening on the land, are now no longer able to ensure his family’s survival. In the same vein, his foot pains him, because he injured it when he kicked the city planner’s desk in frustration. This foot pain, and the limp it causes him to develop, represents a deterioration of his physical ability: whereas before the meeting, there was “nothing wrong with his legs,” now he appears far less physically able. This physical disability is paired with a new pessimism about death. Unable to be sure his remains will not be unearthed by a future construction project, the narrator shouts at his family to cremate him instead of bury him. Whereas before the meeting, the narrator felt that he was “not so old,” the narrator now suggests he may die soon; his shouting this demand demonstrates both a deep pain and a sense of urgency. In this way, the narrator now sees himself the way society seems to—as an incompetent, frail, and irrelevant old man. The narrator therefore internalizes the ageism he experiences, demonstrating the tragedy of aging in a society that does not respect its elders.