How Does Jewett Use Feminism In The White Heron

Sylvia Plath may not have had the perfect life,but she always stuck to her view on how women should be treated in society. She was a feminist and because she was trapped in a bad marriage, she wanted the world to know women do not have to please a man to be happy. In two of her poems titled “Strumpet Song” and “Tinker Jack and the Tidy Wives” she makes remarks on women wanting to please men. In “Strumpet Song” she writes about prostitution, “ With white frost gone and all dreams not worth much, after a leans day work, times comes round for that foul slut”. Sylvia doesn't like that the man has to be in charge. In her second poem “Tinker Jack and the Tidy Wives” she writes, “Come lady bring that pot,gone black of polish and whatever pans this mending master should trim back to shape”. In this poem Sylvia writes about a women pleasing a man based on her looks. The idea on plastic surgery, a women having to change her body to please a man.

Within the story, “A White Heron,” the reader is first introduced to the young main character, Sylvia, whose everyday life is interrupted by an unexpected event. As Sylvia is leading her cow home through the forest, she hears an unusual whistle. Her curiosity leads her to meeting a seemingly lost, yet handsome man she had never seen before. Sylvia learns that the man is a hunter, and especially has a passion for hunting birds. The hunter claims he is specifically looking for a white heron and he is willing to give Sylvia and her grandmother 10 dollars if she finds its nest for him.

In A White Heron Sarah Orne Jewett really dramatizes Sylvia, the main character through using several different literary elements. He uses such things as diction, metaphors, imagery, narrative pace and point of view throughout the story which help the reader stay interested.

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

Ida was rushed to the hospital, but frostbite had reached her voicebox, and the doctors said it would be a miracle if she ever regained her speech. There was no question of her ever calling again. The bird calling world mourned the loss of its national

The first-person speaker in Atwood’s poem, a siren woman confined to an island with the job of attracting men, resembles her strong opinion on the roles women should play in society. As the siren waits to lure men in with her song, she expresses a strong dislike towards her job. Atwood refrains from

In the literary work Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros we are able to analyze the short story through a feminist perspective, with the feminist criticism critical theory. A literary criticism has at least three primary purposes in developing critical thinking skills, enabling us to understand, analyze, and judge works of literature, of any type of literature. It can resolve any question or problem within a literary work that we do not understand from merely reading the literature. Look into multiple alternative outcomes to the literature and decide which the better outcome in the end. We can form our own judgements, our thoughts about what we feel from the literature. By analyzing Sandra Cisneros in depth as an author, we can see her

While the apron symbolizes, the domestic restrictions placed upon women, the canary represents the societal limitations that women were also held to during the twentieth century. Throughout the drama, Mrs. Wright and the canary share many similarities. For example, Mrs. Hale, the wife of Mr. Hale, describes that Mrs. Wright “was kind of like a bird herself—sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and—fluttery” (185). Overall, the quotation describes Mrs. Wright as a gentle and submissive woman, the type of woman society expected her to be. In addition, although Mrs. Hale compares her to a bird in a favorable manner, she also defines Mrs. Wright as a woman that is fragile and uncappable of providing for herself, another social stereotype that women were subject to. Ultimately, however, the rigid social expectations for women served to reiterate their role in the home and to further confine them to the homestead itself, especially as society typically objectified and trivialized women, celebrating the conforming wife while condemning women to have their wings clipped by society’s standards. In this way, beyond her personality, Mrs. Wright becomes even more synonymous with the canary, an estranged creature confined behind bars as an aesthetic spectacle that is unable to sing an independent song.

While trying to find a piece of paper and some string, Mrs. Peters stumbles upon a bird cage. As they examine the cage further, they notice that the door is broken, but assume the cat got it. The women toss up a few thoughts over the bird cage and Mrs. Hale throws out, “Looks as if someone must have been rough with it” (1086). As they continue, the women decide to take Mrs. Wright her quilt to work on while locked up but they soon find something that frightens them; they found the bird, but its neck was broken. Mrs. Peters, startled, says, “Somebody – wrung – its – neck” (1087). Both women are unsure what to do with the bird, but know to hide it from the men. This clue is great than the others because it possibly shows Mrs. Wrights breaking point. The possibility of her husband yanking open the cage door, taking out the bird, and breaking its fragile neck is enough for her to lose it and do him the same

Similarly, Jewett certainly didn't shy away from writing female characters in situations or roles considered unusual or socially unacceptable for women at the time. Sylvia from "A White Heron", who Jewett based greatly off of her childhood self, is exactly the type of tomboyish, pocket knife-wielding and tree-hugging young girl you don't often see in writing from this period. These deviations from that era's common literary practices went so far as to describe women

Wright silences Mrs. Wright. The women suspect Mr. Wright does not enjoy the birds singing, although his wife does. “Mrs. Hale: No, Wright wouldn’t like the bird-a thing that sang” (Glaspell 1045). Mr. Wright becomes angry and snaps the canary’s neck, leading Mrs. Wright to her breaking point. “The women learn something that the confident, powerful men remain ignorant about: the path these women follow leads them directly to their choice of silence” (Holstein).

Throughout the history Fiction has been used by many writers to emphasize on environment and the importance it has in our lives. "A White Heron", is a great example of how an article can effectively grip the attention of the reader and delivering a vital message at the same time. On the other hand fact based articles are based on truth, research and years of hard work but unfortunately most of the time they fail to capture the common reader proving interesting to only subject area experts or environmentalists.

Sylvia is a young girl that is very lonely, with few friends to keep her company. She is proud to say that her best friend is her lone cow. Another character is her grandmother, who is her guardian, since her parents are both deceased. Her grandmother is very hospitable and friendly towards travelers. Considering we are never informed as to if there are neighbors nearby, we can assume that the grandmother may possibly be the first person to be seen by the travelers for a while. The final character is the hunter. He’s searching for one particular bird, the white heron. Eventually, Sylvia lies to him to save the heron’s life. This causes him to go on a rampage of anger and start shooting at random birds he finds in the woods. The setting makes this make a bit more sense for a lonely girl living in the country with no friends. In present day, she would probably have Internet or something to entertain herself. Since the setting is in the early 1900’s, you can assume she has almost nothing to do, except read books over and over again. Which, personally, doesn’t sound like such a bad

The dead bird, draped in cloth, with a rope around its neck, is the most critical piece of evidence and proved Mrs. Wright’s character. She was dreary, and had pent up anger that was related to her marriage; she was not joyous and happy, she had withdrawn from the church choir and now, could barely finish her household chores. Mrs. Wright was an exhausted woman, quite possibly insane and she longed for nothing more than freedom and liberation from the heavy weight in her life, her husband.

According to Myra Stark, “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” “examines the life of a woman dominated, indeed “terrified by men” (477). This idea of women being dominated and terrified was typical of 1950s marriages. A major contrast is presented throughout this poem between the tigers and Aunt Jennifer (McArdle 2). This contrast begins in lines 1-4 of the