The Forestwife is a novel that encourages young adult readers not only to achieve or to recognize female heroism, but to define all women as having a valued identity outside of male-defined social roles, apart from motherhood and wifedom.

Mary's quest becomes one to liberate her free will. Although her quest is an active choice, it is a negative one, a choice against her intended marriage—and it is best read in metaphorical terms: It is a quest of spirit.

If Mary desires to be free of patriarchal oppression (here, gendered definition and economic valuation and the denial of free will), she must put aside patriarchal definitions of herself (however useful). Thus it is that breaking away from both patriarchal oppression and definition—into the realm of free will and self-assertion—becomes a matter of spirit. As the elemental substance of Mary's story...