Comparing The White Heron And Under The Lion's Paw

At first glance, based on the stories “The White Heron” and “Under the Lion’s Paw,” the authors, Sarah Orne Jewett and Hamlin Garland, seem to share similar interpretations of the world. In “The White Heron,” the world is observed and represented as a cold place where one must make difficult choices, and those choices do not always have a correct answer. There are regrets in life. In “Under the Lion’s Paw,” the world is observed and represented as a cold place where the decisions you make are tough, and you may fall upon bad luck often. However, there exists a difference between these stories. In “The White Heron,” the main character’s life is not changed as drastically by the decisions she made. In “Under the Lion’s Paw,” the decisions made

drastically affect the family in a terrible way. Another difference is that in “The White Heron,” the scenario is totally unrealistic compared to the situation in “Under the Lion’s Paw.” The characters in both stories experienced bad luck. In reality, the decision in “The White Heron” would have been to take the money that the family so desperately needed. In contrast, the decisions in “Under the Lion’s Paw” were made with the family in mind.
In order to understand why the authors represent the world the way they do in their stories, one must first look into the backgrounds of these individuals. Sarah Orne Jewett, the author of “The White Heron,” grew up in Southern Maine. She was the daughter of a well-known, wealthy physician. Due to belonging in the upper class, she had many connections, and she had the privilege of attending a college preparatory school. Jewett also got to start publishing her writings at a young age (Heller). Jewett’s fairly unproblematic life explains why “The White Heron” is unrealistic and light-hearted compared to Garland’s “Under the Lion’s Paw.” In contrast, Garland was born in Midwest Wisconsin. He was part of the lower-class, bouncing around Iowa farms most of his childhood. He later self-educated at a Boston library and began giving lectures and publishing stories shortly thereafter (Newlin). His low-class lifestyle gave him no head-start on publishing his works; this explains why his “Under the Lion’s Paw” is realistic and slightly depressing.
Although “The White Heron” and “Under the Lion’s Paw” contrast in their realities, they have one like theme: viewing the world as a cold place.

“The White Heron” does this in a naïve way because the main character is a young girl. For example, the main character shows her age by hiding in the bushes when she first meets the young hunter. In fact, Sylvia would not even make eye contact with the hunter (Perkins 532). But, after Sylvia got used to the stranger, the two became “new-made friends” and watched the moon come up together (Perkins 533). It seems as though the world could be a decent place indeed, but then the story alternates. It begins to change perspective when the grandmother claims to have buried four children, and she says, “I’d ha’ seen the world myself if it had been so I could” (Perkins 533). The grandmother’s assertion lets the reader know that she and Sylvy live an underprivileged life. It is at this point of the story that the reader learns that Sylvy knows the grounds well, knows all about birds, and loves animals. The hunter is looking for a white heron to make part of his collection of stuffed birds. As it turns out, Sylvy knows exactly where this bird resides (Perkins 534). The reader can see the conflict here, since Sylvy loves animals. But, the hunter offers ten dollars to show him the bird. Sylvy thinks, “No amount of thought, that night, could decide how many wished-for treasures the ten dollars, so lightly spoken of, would buy” (Perkins 534). In order

to get the ten dollars, Sylvy must give up one of her treasured animals. In the end, Sylvy does not compromise the bird’s location. Not only does she abandon the promise of riches, she abandons the companionship she may have had with the hunter. The world is a cold place where the decisions we make may not have a correct answer.
“Under the Lion’s Paw” also views the world as an unrelenting place. You can tell this theme right away with the depressing opening paragraph:
All day long the ploughmen on their prairie farms had moved to and fro in their wide level fields through the falling snow, which melted as it fell, wetting them to the skin – all day, notwithstanding the frequent squalls of snow, the dripping, desolate clouds, and the muck of the furrows, black and tenacious as tar (Perkins 676).
The reader is introduced to the Haskins family. They have fallen upon bad luck; all their crops had been eaten up by grasshoppers (Perkins 679). Tim Haskins had no money to buy new land in the Midwest. Mrs. Haskins says, “…they was days this week when I jest wanted to lay right down an’ die” (Perkins 679). The depressing tone continues throughout the story. It seems that every time the family has good fortune, bad luck befalls them once more. Council, the man the Haskins family is residing with, advises Haskins to buy the old Higley farm, now owned by Butler, a man who buys farms for change on the dollar in foreclosures in order to make money off of tenants who want to rent the land (Perkins 680). Butler strikes one as the wheeler and dealer type, which is bad news for Haskins. Butler rents the Higley farm to Haskins for cheap, and Haskins agrees to rent for three years and then renew the lease or purchase the farm (Perkins 682). The Haskins family toiled day and night on the downtrodden property. The story states that “Haskins loved his boy, and would have saved him from this (hard labor) if he could, but he could not” (Perkins 682). The narrative seems to become joyous as the Haskins enjoy their new home, struggle less with money, and make many friends who donate necessities to them. However, the harvest was rough, and many hours of labor were spent on it (Perkins 682-683). Nevertheless, Haskins believed he was “getting nearer and nearer to a home of his own, and pushing the wolf of want a little farther from his door” (Perkins 683). Little did he know, Butler would want “five thousand and five hundred dollars” for the place instead of the original “two thousand five hundred” they had agreed upon (Perkins 684). Butler would make Haskins pay five hundred dollars a year, buy the place for fifty-five hundred, or get off his property. As the narrative draws to a close, the theme of the world as a cold place is at its strongest. There are several examples of this. “He (Haskins) could face hardship, ceaseless toil, but he could not face the cold and sneering face of Butler” (Perkins 684). The cold and sneering face is a perfect illustration of a cold, heartless world. “He was under the lion’s paw. He felt a horrible numbness in his heart and limbs. He was hid in a mist, and there was no path out” (Perkins 684). Being under the lion’s paw is a metaphor for the world being a soul crushing place. And lastly, out of anger, Haskins almost stabs Butler with a pitchfork, but instead drops it, to which Butler responds, “Make out y’r deed an’ mor’gage, an’ git off’n my land, an’ don’t ye never cross my line agin; if y’ do, I’ll kill ye” (Perkins 685). This is devastating for Haskins, and this scene shows just how unsympathetic the world can be.
The common theme of the world as a callous place is where the similarities between “The White Heron” and “Under the Lion’s Paw” end.

There are several differences, including how the problems are dealt with, how the lives of the characters are changed, and how realistic each story is. The problems in “The White Heron” are managed by Sylvia reflecting on her possible loss of money and loss of a friend. She is still happy about her decision, though, because in her young mind, saving the bird was what would bring her the most happiness. Haskins in “Under the Lion’s Paw” deals with his problems considerably differently, although he does reflect on his actions at the end of the story in a kind of stupor (Perkins 684). He and his family put up with all the back-breaking labor in order to better their lives. When this does not happen, Tim Haskins commits a crime by threatening to kill his landlord with a pitchfork. He does this in a fit of anger. This anger and depression are absent in “The White Heron.” In “The White Heron,” the main character’s life is not changed dramatically. She does not accept the ten dollars from the hunter, but her and her grandmother will continue to live poorly, but satisfactory. In “Under the Lion’s Paw,” the Haskins family becomes homeless. Their lives are forever changed by an abrupt decision made by the father. Although they experienced bad luck in the beginning, nothing could have prepared the family for this awful fate. “The White Heron” registers

as highly unrealistic. In actuality, no one lives in an ideal world where the poor can forfeit the chance for money in order to save a bird. The grandmother would have made the child show the hunter where the bird was, so that they could receive the ten dollars to live off of. However, “Under the Lion’s Paw” appears realistic. The problems in the story ring true to the time when the story was written, late 1880s into the early 1890s (Perkins 684), and the way the problems are dealt with are realistic even in modern times. If one needed a home, one would do anything to provide for their family. It is normal to expect to get a reward for hard work and money. Lastly, most people have a time where they cannot hold in their anger, and Haskins’ fit of rage was for good reason: he would lose everything he and his family had worked so hard for. After Haskins blew up, he realized what a mistake he had made, and he sat in a stupor like most humans would.
The worlds of these stories are completely different, and one can see that these authors observe and represent the world in diverse ways. This could be due to coming from completely unalike backgrounds. Garland represents his world as a cold place where tough times affect even the best of people who work the hardest for what they have. Garland grew up poor, so it is easier for him to describe what the low-class goes through in real life. Jewett also represents her world as a cold place, but she does so in a naïve manner. This could be due to being raised in the upper class, so she is naïve of what it is really like to be poor. Both authors wrote during the Realism and Naturalism movements in American literature (Perkins 105-109). These movements influenced their writings immensely, but each author had his/her own view about the real world.