Critical Analysis of Sarah Orne Jewett's Short Story "A White Heron"

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Critical Analysis of Sarah Orne Jewett's Short Story "A White Heron"
Set in an isolated portion of Maine, Sarah Orne Jewett's short story "A White Heron" revolves around conflict, a difficult choice a nine-year-old must make which will lead to her losing a new friend. It is the story of a lonely nine-year-old girl name Sylvia who lives in the Maine woods with her grandmother, Mrs. Tilley. As the story progresses Sylvia met a young and appealing ornithologist, often named as "The Hunter", who is in search of a rare bird he spotted in the area. The hunter counted on Sylvia to let him know of the location of the bird; later on Sylvia had to choose between revealing the location of the white heron to the hunter and protecting the bird. At the end the hunter left disappointed and Sylvia lost her first human friend. Jewett develops her style using point of view, symbolism, and tone to show that in order to satisfy the call of nature one must become part of it.
Considering all the methodical aspects of the story of a nine-year-old girl who must choose between protecting a white heron and losing a new friend, the point of view of the story was most ambiguous to critics. “A White Heron” is told in an omniscient third-person point of view. The narrator went from past tense to present tense three times in the story. One of the times that the narrator used present tense was when Sylvia first heard the hunter approaching in the woods, “this little woods-girl is horror-stricken" (Jewett 5). The narrator seems to have more of an interest in Sylvia’s thoughts and feelings than the other characters’ because nothing more is shown of the other characters’ thoughts and feelings besides what they demonstrate through their words and actions. At tim...

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...wett uses various tones in the development of “A White Heron.” The first two paragraphs in “A White Heron,” the narrator creates a blithe and adventurous tone. Jewett purposefully downplayed the difficulty of the journey and introduced Sylvia’s curiosity and her first call to nature; “Sylvia began with utmost bravery to mount the top of it.” (Jewett 779) By using an anxious tone in the story, Sylvia portrays to the readers the idea of a conflict raging between Sylvia and nature. “The way was harder than she thought; she must reach far and hold fast, the sharp dry twigs caught and held her and scratched like angry talons…” (Jewett 779) The simile “like angry talons” adds to the tension of the tone. Through diction, Jewett displays a tone shift from anxious to triumphant and peaceful to emphasize the importance of becoming one with nature in order to answer its call.

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