Sarah Orne Jewett-Ecofeminist

Sarah Orne Jewett’s short story of a young girl named Sylvia, who must make an important decision in the midst of finding her place in her new found home. Jewett sets the stage for the events to unfold with a bit of mystery and magic. There are undertones of ecofeminism, romanticism, and heroism, which the story works through to lead the protagonist to her final decision that will ultimately shape her future, to become the protector of her new natural home.
Jewett begins the story against a backdrop of woods at around eight o’clock in the evening, which would be a bit late for a nine year old girl. Sylvia, is trying to wrangle her family cow “Mistress Moolly” home. Jewett describes the scene as a game of hide and seek between the two and places

Ecofeminism is defined as: “a branch of feminism that examines the connections between women and nature”(Miles, par. 1). The term suggests as stated by A.S. Indu that “the oppression of women and the oppression of nature area closely related”(Indu 1). Sylvia has become comfortable in her surroundings only to be disrupted by the unnamed hunter, who represents parts of her past and parts of her future depending on which path she chooses. When initially confronted by the hunter she is very frightened. Sylvia has been described as being fearful of people, which is the likely reason she was sent away from the crowded town to live in seclusion with her grandmother. The hunter initially confronts her with a whistle, which she knew right away lacked the “friendliness” of a bird’s call, but was “aggressive” like a boy (Jewett 2). The fear she has for the hunter shows his representation of her past of industrialism, steel, and consumerism as Joseph Church states: “ the author depicts the hunter as dangerously if subtly destructive”(Church, par. 3). Elizabeth Ammons furthers this depiction when she states: “The combination of violence, voyeurism, and commercialism contained in the gun-wielding science, the goal of which is to create living death, is chilling”(Ammons 5). The nameless hunter almost immediately takes her freedom from her as he asks for lodging and food, as if she has no choice to become the

He enamors her with his knowledge of birds, yet she does not understand why he wants to kill something so dear to him. The hunter’s yearning for his prize heron is symbolic of males domination in society and his collection of birds as the symbol for what he is willing to destroy to gain that prize and intends on exploiting Sylvia’s knowledge to gain that prize. The infatuation that Sylvia is beginning to feel for the hunter begins to give her a sense of guilt as she has allowed him to infiltrate her beloved forest. However she tells herself as long as she follows and does not lead him and remains fairly quiet she will not betray nature or the heron. Befriending the hunter awakens feelings in her that overshadow her dedication to nature and being it’s protector. The excitement of finding the heron, the money and what it could buy along with the feeling of importance and knowledge the hunter gives her pushes her towards loosing her place that she has found in the open arms of Mother