Out of the Woods

Throughout Out of the Woods, reading and writing are motifs that develop the themes of Creativity and Art as Key to Healing and The Power of Letting Go of Grief. Sarah is an avid reader and aspiring writer, and many of her most emotional moments involve books and her own creative efforts. Even though he is not necessarily happy to be on the retreat, Caleb brings Sarah’s e-reader, knowing that nightly time with a book is key to her happiness. In the past timeline, Sarah competes in a province-wide essay contest just before Marcie’s ALS diagnosis. Her mother is proud and supportive, assuring her that she is carrying on a family tradition. As a result, Sarah feels immense pressure to succeed, feeling as though she must make amends for her birth thwarting Marcie’s own youthful writing aspirations. After Cecilia Floodgate disparages Sarah’s talent, Marcie reads her a story by Sylvia Plath about the importance of risking failure, gently trying to tell her that “[f]ailure is simply an opportunity for those who have time” (182). Though Sarah dismissed her mother’s words then, she later recalls them at the retreat, deciding to let them be “louder than those from a woman who’d not known me at all” (191).