A White Heron Anylytical Essay

In 1886, author Sarah Orne Jewett wrote a short story “A White Heron.” The premise of the story revolves around a young girl, Sylvia, who is uprooted from her home in the city and taken by her grandmother, Mrs. Tilley, to live out in the middle of a forested, country culture. Sylvia, a nine year old girl, is quiet and shy but goes about business of caring for the family cow where life was so different from the “crowded, manufacturing town”(p.1598) she came from. For the first time in her short life Sylvia understood what it truly felt like to be alive. It is important to understand Sylvia’s character to truly understand the significance of the tree and Sylvia climbing to the top. Personal growth and maturity is an expectation of living but getting the opportunity to experience it in the country, on a farm, is paramount to the changes Sylvia experiences.
Sylvia is described as shy, quiet as well as fearful. Jewett presents Sylvia as “Afraid of folks”(p.1598 ) and a loner, which is probably why she found the” lonely house”(p.1598) to be a place she never wanted to leave. In the very beginning of the story, while bringing home the milk cow one evening Jewett shares Sylvia’s fear of strangers when “this little woods-girl is horror-stricken to hear a clear whistle not very far away”(p.1598). Her fears are set in motion by the “boy’s whistle, determined and somewhat aggressive “(p.1598). Sylvia’s fright is further exacerbated when the stranger asks her “can I stay at your house” (p.1598), because this is the kind of question she would never want to be asked if she still lived in the city. Sylvia becomes more worried and confused when her grandmother, Mrs. Tilley, welcomes the stranger. She only has her experiences from the crowded ci...

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...le to climb to the top, her breath taking view of the sea she has heard but never seen, the bird’s eye view of the forest and marsh, and her lengthy, muscle wrenching, climb back down exemplifies what growing up is like. In this particular story the tree’s branches represent the steps we take toward adulthood. With each branch Sylvia was lead to make a very sophisticated decision that would change her life. She learned there are more important things in life than money, gifts and flattery. As time passed, Sylvia still dreamed about “her stranger” and wondered is her future would have been different if she had given into her crush and followed after him like a puppy. However, learning to make good choices and live with them is paramount to learning to make far-reaching decisions which are required of Sylvia in her adventurous journey toward maturity and adulthood.