The Process Of Metamorphosis In 'The Outlander' By Gil Adamson

In Gil Adamson’s novel The Outlander (2007), set in 1903, the process of metamorphosis starts with destruction and elimination. The novel begins with a nineteen-year-old Mrs. Mary Boulton, a widow, who begins her self-creation with an act of violence. Her husband being murdered is a metaphorical decimation of her imprisoned self which results in a gateway to her rebirthing herself into a new individual. Mary encourages change and fashions her life as a process of transformation at the cost of infringing visible as well as invisible boundaries to self realization. Therefore, the Mary escapes through the Canadian wilderness not only from her brothers in law who seek revenge, but also from her previous identity. Throughout the story, events occur
that shape and redefine Mary from a passive victim into an active, independent woman responsible for her own existence and orchestrating her own future. Fleeing from external dangers within her own mind, Mary confronts the overwhelming darkness. The nightmares of her past and the ghost of her former married other, Mary learns how to survive, she becomes one with nature, sides with other misfits and as she continues on her way, she saves herself from being hanged. Enlightened as well as strengthened by her traumatic experiences, pursued while pursuing, abandoned but herself abandoning, the widow stakes out a new territory with a promise of new life inside her. Demonstrating that although her husband's death was a tragedy, it was a metaphor of growth and new life to come.