Femininity against Masculinity in A White Heron Essay

Four have already left home, one will leave soon and the other three still dwell in the house with her. She then begins to express the dangers of the world around her in a bird’s point of view. For example, she is afraid that her young will fall in a fowler’s snare, be caught in a net or by birdlime on twigs, or hurt by a hawk. In a human world a fowler’s snare might be fallings into the hands of trickery, robbery, or any other type of crime. Caught by net or birdlime might represent being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a hawk-inflicted injury might symbolize being wounded or killed by an Indian or criminal.

In the short story “the White Heron” (1886), Sarah Jewett portrays a young little girl, Sylvia, bear the temptation of money and affection from the young man with mental struggle, and resolutely determined to protect the fairy of nature – a white heron. Through describing Sylvia’s authentic emotions and using of vivid theme colors and exquisite word choice, Jewett delivers the story like showing a lifelike 19-century country-life drama in front of the readers.

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

Female roles in society have often been minute. In Jewett’s “A White Heron” and Freeman’s “The Revolt of Mother”, Sylvia and Mother demonstrate feminine empowerment. These two prominent female protagonists overcome the male influence in their life and society. Both defy social expectations of women and the obstacles that come with it. The authors express this through their similar use of symbolism and alienation. Jewett and Freeman use different examples of poverty, the motivation of society, and speech in their stories.

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.

Margaret Laurence's A Bird in the House differentiates itself from the four other novels that make up the 'Manawaka series' that has helped establish her as an icon of Canadian literature. It does not present a single story; instead, it is a compilation of eight well-crafted short stories (written between the years 1962 and 1970) that intertwine and combine into a single narrative, working as a whole without losing the essential independence of the parts.

In the story the father didn’t understand his daughter which made their relationship rocky. In the text it says ‘‘...watching him get out of the truck and walk toward me, noticing that there was no smile on his face but still feeling my body move toward him, my arms opening for an embrace, something rising in my throat. My father stopped and held out his right hand.’’ This quote shows that the father had a hard time showing his emotions to his daughter. In the end of the story they bonded over a bird and the father began to understand his daughter.

Gender, is it preordained or learned? With today’s society there are many complexities when trying to understand gender and what it really means to define it. The stereotypes of what are femininity and masculinity have been set for ages. Who is to say that everyone should or will fall into a stereotype? Women don’t have to wear dresses and enjoy shopping, men don’t have to play sports and be rugged, and not all do. In the essay “Rooster at the Hitchin’ Post” the author, David Sedaris, uses both himself and his brother as examples to show that Sedaris suggests that gender is how you chose to be. Having similar experiences as a child not being able to meet up to female

The cold air is relentless and the fire can only do so much to keep a person safe in the elements, but this isn’t always the case in stories. The short story, The Outcasts of Poker Flat, written by Bret Harte entails the life changing experiences that “outcasts” have to endure in horrible weather that becomes inevitable. Albeit this story deals with the unpleasant side of nature, the short story, A White Heron, by Sarah Orne Jewett illustrates the exact opposite. Rather, nature becomes Sylvie’s one true love. The juxtaposing ideas of nature in these two short stories still manage to make the characters make extremely critical life decisions. The short stories A White Heron, by Sarah Orne Jewett and The Outcasts of Poker Flat, by Bret Harte, have key aspects that make themselves coincide and contrast with each other and assist the characters make difficult decisions mainly through the settings in which they are placed; the season that the story occurs in, and the situations in which the characters have to tackle.

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.

What was it that caused the aggression and dominance exhibited by the boys of Lord of the Flies? Was it some metaphysical, spiritual force, or perhaps their genetic makeup? Could it have been the influence of their peers or families, or was it the media that inspired this dangerous pattern? Conceivably, their gender had something to do with this appalling trait. It all begs the question, would the same experiences have occurred had females been stranded on the island instead of males? Had females been in a similar situation as the boys in Lord of the Flies, they would have fared abundantly better. Initially, this paper will address society’s role in encouraging males’ violent behavior, as well as females’ politeness and passivity.

Bradstreet evokes the imagery of a family of birds with “cocks” and “hens” as a description for her children. When I think of a bird family, loyalty, duty, commitment, pride, loving, protector are all adjectives that spring to mind. Her prose, spills her educational background across the pages in the manner in which her metaphors narrate the history of her children. The oldest get married and fly away. The pain of childbearing and childrearing summed up in 8 words, “I nursed them up with pain and care” (p 239). The commonality of birds and how their behavioral habits to sit on the nest until the offspring are hatched, feeding and keeping predators at bay single handedly it is a perfect comparison to her situation with her husband often

When the same person features in the literature of two different stories written by the same author, they often show differences between behavior and description.

During the passage, Henry’s voice expresses his genuine sympathy for Catherine as he watches her suffer through child birth. He later watches her die after their child was pronounced dead. Henry has been extremely pessimistic about the birth, the baby and Catherine which foreshadows this dreadful ending, “[Henry] But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially,” (249). In the passage Henry is shown cursing God for Catherine’s suffering and sarcastically thanking God for the anesthesia that she wouldn’t have needed if she wasn’t in agony. Overall the tone of this excerpt is lamenting.

Thomas De Quincy describes the literature that moves as the literature of power and says that the literature of power teaches the higher truths of life. He calls the literature that provides some kind of information the literature of knowledge. He tells that what we owe to Milton is power- ‘exercise and expansion to our own latent capacity of sympathy with the infinite where every pulse and each separate influx is a step upwards, a