Out of the Woods

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of cursing, sexual content, illness, and death.

Sarah sits in Marcie’s bed, braiding her hair as her mother reads to her. Marcie intentionally chooses a section of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar where the narrator uses fig trees as a metaphor for the array of choices available in young adulthood. These include whether to marry and have children, become a poet, or become a professor. The narrator lets indecision rule, and all the fruit on the fig tree rots.

Marcie tells Sarah she chose the excerpt as a reminder, saying, “I don’t want you to let anyone tell you not to try just because you might fail” (182). Sarah feels this is a gentle rebuke for ignoring schoolwork since Marcie’s prognosis. She insists to herself that Cecilia was right to prevent her from wasting her life. Sarah shares none of these fears and merely assures Marcie she is listening.

In the present, Sarah and Caleb stand on an outcropping of rock with a pool of clear water below them. They agree to dive in together. After they surface, Sarah embraces Caleb, pressing their bodies tightly together.