A White Heron Some people go through situations where the outcome gives them a new outlook on life, much like Sylvia in the short story, A White Heron. The hunter is the corruption that breaks Sylvia's innocence and leads Sylvia to a new experience in her life. The great pine tree enhances Sylvia's courage by making her a better person, while also posing as a guardian for the white heron and an obstacle for Sylvia. The white heron provides a light for Sylvia of her connection with nature. The white heron provides a sense of freedom in Sylvia's mind. The benefit of the hunter, the great pine tree, and the white heron all coincide to help Sylvia find a new outlook on her life. In the beginning of A White Heron, Sylvia makes acquaintance with …show more content…
a young hunter. This hunter becomes determined to find a rare white heron for his collection of birds. The hunter frightens Sylvia when they first meet, because his purpose for being in the woods to capture a white heron. "The handsome stranger" states, "I would give ten dollars to anybody who could show it to me" (Jewett). For Sylvia and her grandmother the ten-dollar reward would help support them, due to their low economic standing and struggle to provide for themselves. After spending time together and becoming better acquainted, Sylvia finds herself falling for the young hunter. At first, Sylvia finds the hunter aggressive by the tone of his whistle and the gun hanging on his shoulder and later finds that she sees him as a "friendly lad, who proved to be most kind and sympathetic" (Jewett). This sense of admiration to his sympathy is furthered when the hunter gives Sylvia "a jack-knife, which she thought as great a treasure as if she were a desert-islander” (Jewett). Sylvia appreciated this gift from the hunter, appreciating of its ability to keep her safe and use for protection. Sylvia reflects that she likes the hunter, but "would have liked him vastly better without his gun;" (Jewett). She admired the hunter, "she could not understand why he killed the very birds he seemed to like so much" (Jewett). Even though he still kills the very thing he "claims" to love, Sylvia still watches him with "loving admiration" (Jewett). Sylvia becomes tempted by the hunter's charm and debates helping him find the white heron, but then becomes confused. Reflecting on the dinner with herself and her grandmother, in which the hunter spoke about his job and his extensive knowledge of birds, Sylvia could not understand why he wouldn't admire the thing he loves. But Sylvia "had never seen anybody so charming and delightful; the woman's heart, asleep in a child, was vaguely thrilled by a dream of love” (Jewett). Distracted by this unknown love and charm, Sylvia wants to help the hunter find the white heron in order to gain his affection by finding something he wants so badly. In contrast, the hunter's interest in Sylvia is based on her knowledge of the woods, which would help him find the heron more quickly. Sylvia knew the woods very well and this knowledge allowed her to begin connecting with nature on a level deeper than she was able to connect with man.
The story mentions, "a great pine-tree stood, the last of its generation" (Jewett). Sylvia was well aware of this tree, and the challenge it presented to her. Sylvia begins to represent similar characteristics of the tree, standing up even though she and the tree have no choice but to stand strong. Sylvia has a choice to help the hunter and pick man over nature, but she feels one with nature and wants to stand up for nature. Sylvia "thought of the tree with a new excitement, for why, if one climbed it at bread of the day, could not one see all the world, and easily discover from whence the white heron flew" (Jewett). Sylvia believes that if someone climbed the great pine tree they could find the white heron, and she plans on trying to find the heron's nest for the hunter. While the hunter and her grandmother were asleep she sneaks out of the house to get a head start to find the heron. Sylvia starts climbing trees to scout for the white heron, and "She crept out along the swaying oak limb at last, and took the daring step across into the old pine-tree" (Jewett). Sylvia has determination while being courageous jumping from tree to tree to find the white heron, also feeling a refreshing spark of energy. This energy is described as a "determined spark of human spirit wending its way from higher branch to branch" (Jewett). Sylvia has this excitement expecting to see the world once she climbs to the top of the pine tree. Once she reaches the top, she sees birds flying and "Sylvia felt as if she too could go flying away among the clouds" (Jewett). While being up high as the clouds, Sylvia could see the world as beautiful unlike she has seen before. While being sky level, Sylvia finally spots the white herons
nest. Sylvia realizes she is so close to receiving the ten dollars from the hunter for finding the heron’s nesting spot. "She knows his secret now, the wild, light, slender bird that floats and wavers, and goes back like an arrow presently to his home in the green world beneath" (Jewett). At this moment, Sylvia and the white heron are back into their homes of nature. Sylvia's time in the pine tree makes her realize her love for nature weighs more than it does for man. "Sylvia cannot speak; she cannot tell the heron's secret and give its life away" (Jewett). The white heron "cries back to his mate on the nest and plumes his feathers for the new day" (Jewett). The white heron has a sense of a new coming without even knowing people are hunting for it, but Sylvia has a new day of overcoming yesterday’s thoughts of wanting to give up the heron's secret. Sylvia feels a stronger connection with the heron than she does the hunter by "how they watched the sea and the morning together" (Jewett). Sylvia has this connection with nature for the sense of freedom they have, and this is why she feels so connected with the white heron. The white heron represents a sense of freedom Sylvia craves. Sylvia is "well satisfied" (Jewett), but she wonders what the hunter would think if she told him she knew where the white heron's nest is. "Whatever treasures were lost to her, woodlands and summertime, remember! Bring your gifts and graces and tell your secrets to this lonely country child" (Jewett). The gift of wisdom has the ability to make decisions and give guidance that is according to God's will. The story A White Heron provides symbols that lead to Sylvia's realization of a new outlook on her life. The first symbol teaches Sylvia how to pick man vs. nature. During her experiences with the hunter, the pine tree, and the white heron she realizes she has a stronger connection with nature than she does mankind. She realizes she could not give up the white heron's secret nesting spot to the hunter because the white heron’s life wasn't worth the hunter's attention. Sylvia realizes her morals matter and she should stick to what she believes in. Sylvia has good intentions, but while the hunter is in her presence she is blind from what is right and wrong. During Sylvia’s time with the hunter she experiences a new type of love that makes her forget her morals. She finds herself when she finally sees the white heron, and realizes she has a connection with nature that no man can replace.
• In the gym, the gym teacher announced that they were going to start a new unit. The new unit was volleyball.
The short story, “The White Heron” and the poem, “A Caged Bird” are both alike and different in many ways. In the next couple of paragraphs I will explain these similarities and differences and what makes them unique to the stories.
Furthermore, they all have an outside threat. The ornithologist might shoot the heron and make it a specimen while the man is suffered from the severe cold weather. In the stories both characters have to deal with the danger from outside world. Sylvia has to climb upon the tree to see where the heron is, the man has to avoid the snow falls from the tree.
The population of the whooping cranes most definitely gets affected from precipitation, because the population gets affected negatively with high precipitation levels present, while positively with low precipitation levels. The population of the whooping cranes gets affected this way because if there were high precipitation levels for a year, the hatching success rate drastically decreases from the precipitation, who damages the eggs laid by the cranes. By either breaking the eggs, making the cranes not be present to incubate their eggs, or actually destroying the birds’ nests. Also, the high precipitation levels may even cause a few fatalities, which is a very serious problem involving this particular endangered species. While with low precipitation
Through appeals to ethos and appeals to pathos, “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett and “The Happy Prince” by Oscar Wilde both accomplish to get across the importance of selflessness in humanity. During these two stories the protagonists of each sacrifice something that could have helped them or what they wanted to help others around them.
In Cold Mountain and "A Poem for the Blue Heron", tone is established in a multitude of ways. These two pieces of literature describe the characteristics and actions of a blue heron, both aiming for the same goal. However, Charles Frazier and Mary Oliver approach their slightly differing tones employing organization, metaphoric language, and diction.
While the man is thinking about the wolf and the impact it had on its surroundings, he knows that many people would be afraid of the it. Realizing that something can be both “terrible and of great beauty,” the man's sense of awe is heightened. While laying under the moonlight, the man thinks about the wolf both figuratively and literally running through the dew on the grass and how there would be a “rich matrix of creatures [that had] passed in the night before her.” Figuratively, this represents the wolf running into heaven. However, the man imagining the wolf literally running and the beauty of her free movements across the “grassy swale” creates a sense of awe that he has for the wolf. A wolf running towards someone would be terrifying, but a wolf running with freedom is magnificently beautiful. After imagining this, the man knows that even though wolves can be terrifying, “the world cannot lose” their sense of beauty and
Throughout the late 19th century following the Industrial Revolution, society became focused on urban life and began to neglect the importance of rural society and nature. In “A White Heron” Sarah Orne Jewett, through Sylvia’s decision to protect the heron, contemplates the importance of nature and rural society. In particular, Jewett employs the cow grazing scene to show the importance of and solitude that Sylvia finds in rural life. When the hunter appears and Sylvia accompanies him on his journey to find the bird, his actions and speech reveal the destructiveness of urban society on nature. The scene when Sylvia climbs the tree to find the heron, initially in order to please the hunter and satisfy her new love for him, shows her realization
Whitney introduces the secondary theme, being that hunters usually have no empathy for their prey. This is one of the first uses of irony in the story. Metaphors and Similes are often used in this story, so the reader has a better image of the setting, this is something, and I find Connell did incredibly well, for instance when he refers to the darkness of the night as moist black velvet, the sea was as flat as a plate-glass and it was like trying to see through a blanket. Rainsford begins his epic struggle for survival after falling overboard when he recklessly stood on the guard rail, this is our first example of how Rainsford manages to conquer his panic and think analytically and there by ensuring his survival.
By presenting the competing sets of industrial and rural values, Jewett's "A White Heron" gives us a rich and textured story that privileges nature over industry. I think the significance of this story is that it gives us an urgent and emphatic view about nature and the dangers that industrial values and society can place upon it and the people who live in it. Still, we are led to feel much like Sylvia. I think we are encouraged to protect nature, cherish our new values and freedoms, and resist the temptations of other influences that can tempt us to destroy and question the importance of the sublime gifts that living in a rural world can bestow upon us.
With all this, the author has achieved the vivid implication that aggressive masculine modernization is a danger to the gentle feminine nature. At the end of the story, Sylvia decides to keep the secret of the heron and accepts to see her beloved hunter go away. This solution reflects Jewett?s hope that the innocent nature could stay unharmed from the urbanization. In conclusion, Sylvia and the hunter are two typical representatives of femininity and masculinity in the story?The white heron? by Sarah Orne Jewett, Ph.D.
Nine-year-old Sylvia is a child who lives in the wood. Her name, ‘‘Sylvia,’’ and her nickname, ‘‘Sylvy,’’ come from the Latin silva meaning ‘‘wood’’ or ‘‘forest.’’ Sylvia lives in the middle of the woods with grandma Tilley and hardly sees anyone else. She remembers when she lived in the city but never wants to return there. However, when she comes across a hunter who is an older man, she enjoys being around another human being and is not sure what to do with the conflicting emotions she starts to feel. He offers to give her money in exchange for giving up the nesting spot of the white heron. She is the only person who can give him what he needs. What she has to think about though is the betrayal of her relationship with nature and whether or not it is worth it. In the end, she does not reveal the heron’s nesting place.
Mrs. Tilly clearly explains this by saying “There ain’t a foot o’ ground she don’t know er way over, and the wild creaturs counts her one o’ themselves” (Jewett 75). Her oneness with nature allowed those around her to take comfort in her as if she was one of the creatures that resided within the trunks or swamp around her. Mrs. Tilly and the ornithologist seem to recognize that there is hardly no distinction between Sylvia and the natural world. Sylvia is seen as innocent, childlike and easily swayed in the eyes of Mrs. Tilly and the young man; however, she is brave in the presence of nature. “There was the huge tree asleep yet in the paling moonlight, and small and silly Sylvia began with utmost bravery to mount to the top of it…” (Jewett 77). Her natural inclination for the innocence of nature allows her to defy the fear or perhaps control that man seems to have towards nature. Instead Sylvia does not see herself as controlling those around her but to become a part of a group as she did not belong to the growing industrial world. Elizabeth Ammons perfectly describes Jewett’s story in the following excerpt from her article:
After that, she describes what is around her and the startling feeling of such a new environment. “What elicits the gasp is the fact that they are standing in a forest, her back pressed up against a huge, ancient tree trunk. The trees are bare and black, their branches stretching into the bright blue expanse of sky above them. The ground is covered in a light dusting of snow that sparkles and shines in the sunlight. It is a perfect winter day and there is not a building in sight for miles, only an expanse of snow and wood. A bird calls in a nearby tree, and one in the answers it.” This paragraph helped me see a huge area of pleasant, old, and peaceful oaks that are living in a natural and fresh world. I think of a day in winter where it is slightly warm and not a cloud in the sky. From the way the text exclaimed “birds calling”, I hear a chirp of a bird similar to the sound I hear when I wake up after sleeping in. At the end of this chapter, Isobel has to debate with herself whether or not all of this has been real. “Isobel is baffled. It is real. She can feel the sun against her skin and the bark of the tree beneath her fingers. The cold of the snow is palpable, though she realizes her dress
Ships are a huge part of the story. Hal’s ship (The Heron) is his pride and joy, and the entire culture of Skandia, which is heavily based on Vikings, is a sea-based community. Boys that go through Brotherband training often join the same crews and spend years raiding, sailing, and relaxing together, and the ships are a central part to this. On chapter six, Hal says, “he exulted in the feeling of being underway, at the helm [steering platform] of his own ship”. This basically describes the Skandian love for ships and sailing.