A White Heron Summary

Starting of with “A White Heron”, the story starts with a mellow, quiet mood. Sylvia is walking in the woods with her companion, her cow. Jewett includes words and phrases such as “childish patience” and “the little girl” that makes the reader grasp the idea of Sylvia being a child. The fact that Sylvia hears the whistle of the stranger and hides also show the idea of her being a young child. The first day meeting the stranger, Sylvia seems reserved and not paying much attention to him talking about the white heron, even when he confesses to pay ten dollar for anyone who helps him find it. Soon enough, Sylvia develops a crush on the hunter. She does go in the woods with him for his needs to find the white heron but she does not disclose where the bird could be, it seemed as if she just wanted to enjoy his company. When Sylvia goes on her

Childhood is arguably the most exciting time of a person’s life. One has few responsibilities or cares, and the smallest events can seem monumentally thrilling. Often, people reflect on the memories of their youth with fondness and appreciation for the lessons they learned. Sarah Orne Jewett captures this essence perfectly in the excerpt from “A White Heron.” Jewett uses many literary devices, including diction, imagery, narrative pace, and point of view to immerse the reader in familiar feelings of nostalgia and wonder, and dramatize the plot.

Although Jewett and Freeman both have poverty-stricken female protagonists, each women’s intentions are driven by different circumstances. Even though Sylvia’s house is described as “the best thrift of an old-fashioned farmstead, though on such a small scale that it seemed like a hermitage”, being poor is not what prompts Sylvia’s motives. She is driven by animal rights to seize the power to make her own decision to reveal the heron’s location. Whereas, the barn is much nicer than the house that Mother and the children currently live in. Mother interrogates father, stating, “you’re lodgin’ your dumb beasts better than you are your own flesh an’ blood. I want to know if you think it’s right” (C666). The sense of poverty within the decomposing house influences Mother to go against father and make the barn into their new updated living quarters. The circumstances that both protagonists were confronted with fueled their compassion to overcome the obstacles each were faced with.

One’s view on something often changes when you look at it from more than one point of view. Morality plays a significant role in any decision making process. It is hard to justify any decision that is not moral. Sarah Orne Jewett’s “A White Heron” has many elements of nature, and of the preservation of what Sylvia holds dearly. The thought provoking short story evokes emotions of caring, loving, and fear. All of these emotions are shown by different settings and characters in the story.

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.

One of the women made the comment that Mrs. Wright used to be pretty and happy, when she was Minnie Foster not Minnie Wright. This is just the beginning of realizing that she was just pushed to far into depression and couldn't live up to John Wright's expectations anymore. The Wrights had no children and Mrs. Wright was alone in the house all day long. The women perceive John Wright to be a controlling husband who in fact probably wouldn't have children and this may have upset Mrs. Wright. They eventually find vacant bird cage and ponder upon what happened to the bird, realizing Mrs. Wright was lonely they figured she loved the bird and it kept her company. The women make reference to the fact that Mrs. Wright was kind of like a bird herself, and that she changed so much since she married John Wright. They begin looking for stuff to bring her and they find the bird dead and they realize someone had wrung its neck. This is when they realize Mrs. Wright was in fact pushed to far, John Wright had wrung her bird's neck and in return Minnie Wright wrung his.

Kelly, Joseph. The Seagull Reader - Stories. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2008. 215-21. Print.

"The Girl Who Raised Pigeons” is about a little girl named Betsy Ann Morna who is being raised by her single father. When Betsy was born her mother died from childbirth. Since Betsy had experienced such hardship when she was born her father was determined to shield her from all the tragic in the world. When she gets a little older, her father allows her to raise pigeons. But in order to shield her from tragedy her father makes sure he clears the pigeons that died before Betsy can find out. But Betsy found out. When a wild pigeon was visiting Betsy's pigeons it died but she did not want to tell her father because “He’ll think it’s the end of the world or somethin”(17). After Betsy is caught shoplifting things change between her and her father. He watches her like a hawk and must know what she is doing at all time. After Betsy grows up all her pigeons die and this changes Betsy even more. She constantly misses them and draws pictures of them on her hands and cries about them. The story ends with Betsy seeing one of her pigeons flying over the city. One part of the city that Betsy is inspired by is her pigeons. The pigeons inspired her because they allowed her to grow up and face reality that life contains tragedies. Knowing that the pigeons die allowed her to come of age and realize what happens in the world. Having her father hid everything bad for her kept her young for the time being. But once she realized what was happening it allowed her to grow up and become the women she was supposed to be.

Even before her experience in the pine tree, Sylvia shows a deep thought and love for the farm. She felt, “as if she never had been alive at all before she came to live at the farm.” (Jewett 85) and even Sylvia’s grandmother agrees, “there ain’t a foot o’ground she don’t know her way over, and the wild creatur’s counts her one o’themselves.” (Jewett 87). These evidences have destined that Sylvia would choose nature’s lover over the affection of the money on the society she is living

Mrs. Wright lived her entire marriage alone, confined to a tiny house in the outskirts of town, with her only true companion a bird who sung to her, she loved that bird like it was her child. Mrs. Wright blamed her husband for her loneliness because he wouldn’t allow her to sing in church, have friends over, or have a telephone to even call people occasionally. Mr. Wright made her feel as though she was in solitary confinement in a prison this was not a home. At least she had her canary to keep her company, well until he took that away from her too.

As the ladies examine the house, while the men are other places, picking clothes and an apron up for Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Hale gains sympathy for her until finally she starts to take action. When they find the block of quilting that has stitching askew, she starts to fix it, perhaps to cover for Mrs. Wright?s distraught state of mind. While Mrs. Hale is finding sympathy for Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Peters offers a counterpoint that tries to justifies the men?s viewpoints and actions. Her comments to Mrs. Hale?s resentful musings on Mrs. Wright?s unhappy life and on the actions of men in regards to women in general all seem to be rote answers programmed into her by society and a desire not to cause any trouble. This all changes as soon as Mrs. Peters finds the bird.

            The author uses a number of different literary devices to describe the hardship she feels such as metaphor, simile, and imagery. The author revels that her life and the chickens are not very different. “I felt her body break deep inside my own chest” (6). The way the chicken has to be killed after being loved for so long is the same way Hall feels about being with her husband for so long and then having him cheat on her and leave her. “Guilt and fear tugged me like an undertow” (7). The chickens are being killed by the one that loved them and in the same way; Hall is killed by the one she loved: her husband. The author uses a numerous number of vivid imagery to describe the struggle she is going through with her husband leaving and her having to kill the chickens. “Her shiny black beak opened and closed, opened and closed” (5). The rumors and suspicions that the author’s husband was cheating on her would come and go, until it reached a breaking point

?Sylvia still watched the young man with loving admiration. She had never seen anybody so charming and delightful, the woman?s heart, asleep in the child, was vaguely thrilled by a dream of love.? As the symbol of masculinity, the hunter is an aggressor although he is described to be kind, handsome, friendly and sympathetic. When first met Sylvia in the woods, he ?called out in a very cheerful and persuasive tone? and spoke to her in a courteous way. In fact, he takes advantages of Sylvia because he is in need of home and food. When he needs Sylvia?s help, he proves he cares for her so much, ?He listened eagerly to the old woman?s quaint talk, he watched Sylvia?s pale face and shining gray eyes with ever growing enthusiasm.? ?He told her many things about the birds and what they knew and where they lived and what they did with themselves. And he gave her a jack-knife, which she thought as great a treasure as if she were a desert-islander.? However, he is cruel and merciless to nature, his gun is a convention which is to destroy the nature. ?I have been hunting for some birds?. At the end, he goes away and does not help her family when she refuses to tell him about the heron?s nest.

The White Heron is a spiritual story portraying great refinement and concerns with higher things in life. A 9 year old girl once isolated in the city found fulfillment in a farm surrounded by nature. Too those less unfortunate, money charm and other attractions can be intoxicated; Sylvia did not bite. She could have helped her situation and found a way to wealth but in the end she realized that it wouldn’t help her to be the person she wanted to be. This paper will illustrate a critical analysis of the story of White Heron and focus on the relationship between the literary elements of the story, plot, characterization, style, symbolism and women’s concerns that are specific to this period.

The poem “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver connects the both the natural and human world as it compares human life to the travels of wild geese. Touching on the landscapes of the natural world and emotions faced by the average person; Oliver manages to use devices such as tone, metaphors and descriptive images to convey a message that helps a person view life from a different perspective. Oliver makes it clear that the relationship between the wild and the human is coexistence; where one universe continues on if the parallel seems to have stopped. Thus, Oliver is able to move the reader on a comforting journey as she entangles the natural world and human world, showing that the natural world has more