Solitude In A White Heron

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

of the importance of nature. Sylvia’s final choice to not tell the hunter the heron’s location shows that she is content with nature and rural society and is willing to give up her first love to keep nature separate from urban society’s destructive force. In “A White Heron” Sylvia realizes the importance of nature and rural society, urban society is destructive, and rural society and nature should be separated from urban society.
However, the hunter’s appearance serves as a contrast to Sylvia’s familiar and affectionate relationship with the natural world

Sylvia is intimately familiar with and has an affectionate relationship with the natural world and rural life, which is confirmed in the cow grazing scene.

When driving home her cow in the dark Sylvia’s “feet were familiar with the path, and it was no matter whether their eyes could see it or not” (Jewett 682). Sylvia is familiar with the woodlands to such an extent that she forms a strong physical connection to the natural world because even her “feet were familiar with the path.” She also refers to her cow as a “valued companion” and considers the cow’s pranks as an “intelligent attempt to play hide and seek” to which she responds to “with a good deal of zest” (Jewett 682). Sylvia escapes urban society because she was “afraid of folks,” and now relies on her “valued companion” to fulfill her need for friends and playmates. In doing so, the cow becomes the sole being she interacts with and consists of the totality of her amusement, which in turn prompts a close emotional attachment and relationship. Prior to coming to the farm, she had lived “in a crowded manufacturing town” but now feels “as if she had never been alive before.” Sylvia is content in her isolation from humanity at the farm where she only lives with her grandmother, and finally feels “alive” in a setting where she is alienated from other people and surrounded by nature and animals. She in turn seems content and welcomes her close relationship to the natural world around her and willingly gives up human interactions to achieve this. After trailing through the woods late into the night she feels “as if she were a part of the gray shadows and the moving leaves.” Sylvia comes to the realization that she becomes “a part of” and finds a sense of belonging in the natural world, which shows her close emotional

connection.
However, the hunter’s appearance serves as a contrast to Sylvia’s familiar and affectionate relationship with the natural world. When the hunter is first introduced his whistle is described as “determined and somewhat aggressive” unlike “a bird’s whistle, which has a sort of friendliness” (Jewett 683). The hunter’s whistle is “determined” and “aggressive” and immediately suggests that he is an outsider to Sylvia’s view of her natural world which is symbolized by the bird’s whistle in having a “sort of friendliness.” She is initially “horror-stricken” at the appearance of “the enemy” who was a “tall young man, who held a gun over his shoulder.” The fact that “the enemy” carries a gun shows his focus on the destruction and violence of the natural world because he is trying to shoot down and murder birds. This idea of the destruction of the natural world, which contrasts greatly with Sylvia’s familiar and affectionate relationship with the natural world, is one of the reasons that causes her to become “horror stricken” when she sees the hunter. The hunter also claims that he, like Sylvia, has a love for birds which he demonstrates by killing and stuffing “dozens and dozens of them…and I have shot or snared every one myself” (Jewett 684). Unlike Sylvia, who enjoys listening to birds’ whistles and watching them fly in the sky, the hunter is enthusiastic and boasts about shooting and stuffing “dozens and dozens” of them. This draws a vast contrast between Sylvia’s views of the natural world and the hunter’s because the hunter, similar to urban society, is worried only about the study of the birds and not the birds themselves or the consequences of his actions on nature. The hunter is also a symbol for urban society because he is an ornithologist and advocates the objective studying of nature, regardless of its consequences, which suggests that urban society is destructive to the natural world.
The hunter attempts, and is initially successful, in persuading Sylvia to accept his destructive view of the natural world. When following the hunter on his quest for the heron, he “gave her a jackknife” which she considered a great “treasure” (Jewett 685). The knife he gives Sylvia symbolizes his efforts to make her understand and accept his way of viewing nature, which is through death and destruction, as symbolized by the weapon. Since Sylvia considers the knife a “treasure” she tentatively and perhaps subconsciously accepts his way of looking at nature. As Sylvia follows the hunter on his quest, “the woman’s heart, asleep in the child, was vaguely thrilled by a dream of love” (Jewett 686). Sylvia experiences her first feelings of attraction and the “woman’s heart,” which suggests the ability to fall in love, is awakened. Sylvia has in turn fallen in love with the hunter. However, Sylvia says that “she could not understand why he killed the very birds he seemed to like so much” but she still “watched the young man with loving admiration” (Jewett 687). Although she does not understand why the hunter kills the birds, her “loving admiration” and desire for his friendship and love allows her to overlook this aspect and still want his company. This ultimately result in her decision to climb the tree to search for the heron and accept the “triumph and delight and glory… when she could make known her secret” (Jewett 686). At this moment, Sylvia has accepted the hunter’s view of the destruction of the natural world and has overlooked her own previous familiarity and affectionate relationship with nature because she is willing to kill the bird and abolish her relationship with nature.
When Sylvie climbs the tree to initially search for the white heron, she realizes her resemblance to and transcends her connection to the natural world. When climbing the tree Sylvia becomes bird-like and “her bare feet and fingers… held like bird’s claws to the monstrous ladder” and she “felt as if she too could go flying away among the clouds” (Jewett 686-687). As she climbs the tree Sylvia abandons the world beneath her and in a sense becomes the heron she is searching for, as demonstrated by her “claws” and desire to fly “away among the clouds.” This realization of her resemblance strengthens her connection to the heron and nature. As Sylvia climbs the tree she regains her connection to nature lost by the hunter and the “old pine must have loved his new dependant… And the tree stood still and held away the winds” (Jennet 687). The tree “loves his new dependant” and steadies its limbs and protects Sylvia from the wind, and in a sense acts as a guardian by protecting her from danger. As a result, Sylvia is reminded of her connection to and familiarity with the natural world. When she reaches the peak of the tree, the nature surrounding her is described in rich and vivid language: the ocean with “a golden dazzle over it,” “the clouds that were purple and rose-colored and yellow,” and “the woodlands and farms reached miles and miles into the distance” (Jewett 687). The use of descriptive language such as “golden dazzle” shows Sylvia’s appreciation and understanding of nature because she is again reflecting on nature’s beauty. By seeing “miles and miles into the distance” and finally seeing the ocean, Sylvia also transcends her view of the natural world by expanding it immensely to include both the ocean which she has always longed to see and a better understanding of the countryside. This in turn allows her to appreciate and connect to the natural world.
When Sylvia decides to not tell the hunter the location of the heron, she realizes that her connection with nature and rural life outweighs human desires and material wealth. Sylvia loves the hunter and claims that he is “so worth making happy” by telling the location of the heron, but after remembering “how the heron came flying through the golden air and how they watched the sea and morning together” she cannot “give it’s life away”(Jewett 688). Though Sylvia wants to gain the man’s favor and fulfill her human desires and share his friendship and love, she is unwilling to “give its life away” and in doing so relinquish her connection to the natural world which was transcended when on top of the tree. She thus comes to the conclusion that her connection to nature is more important then her love and human desires. Sylvia says that “he can make them rich with money… they are poor now” and that she could not contemplate “how many wished-for treasures the ten dollars… would buy” (Jewett 688, 685). By not telling the hunter where the heron is, Sylvia implies that “wished-for treasures” and “being rich with money” are trivial and she would rather preserve her connection with the heron encapsulated when “they watched the sea and the morning together” on the tree. Sylvia then goes on to say that “whatever treasures were lost to her, woodlands and summer-time remember. Bring your gifts and graces…to this lonely summer child” (Jewett 688). The “treasures,” “gifts,” and “graces” of nature are more valuable then the hunter’s love and the “wished-for treasures” of the material world because she willingly chooses nature’s splendors over industrial life’s rewards. Therefore, she suggests that material wealth is insignificant in comparison to the beauty of nature. Also, considering that she forfeits all of the benefits of the industrial world, wealth and possessions, she asserts that she is comfortable in her rural life and when she is surrounded by nature and animals and is unwilling to conform to industrial life.