Literary Devices In A White Heron

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.

senses in the twelfth hour when she climbs high into the trees early one morning

In Childhood Walker takes the readers back into childhood memories of her family’s farm and how magical it was to experience for her. As Walker and her daughter are in the garden the enthusiasm from her daughter reminds Walker of her own as a child. Because of this Walker is taken back to a preverbal memory of “rolling along in a creaky wooded wagon” (224) arriving in a vast watermelon field. While her family finish fill the wagon, they shared a “delicious red and thirst-quenching” (224) watermelon with “glossy” (224) black seeds. As Walker’s farther informs her that the field she’s in was grown by her family, astonished, she refers to it as “too incredible to be believed” (225.) By using descriptive diction Alice Walker’s passage was able influence us, the readers, to reminisce of blissful childhood memories of our

In literature, childhood is often played off as a time of innocence: one of mere self-discovery. Sue Monk Kidd’s novel, The Secret Life of Bees, contradicts this notion, particularly as the plot thickens. Kidd portrays her feelings that innocence is fleeting; there one minute and gone the next. Once a curious girl, the struggles of Lily Owens’ life age her long before her time. In The Secret Life of Bees, Lily’s personal struggles shape the novel in its’ entirety.

How can a meager walk in the woods make for an engaging story? Well, in “The White Heron,” the author Sarah Orne Jewett, uses colors, metaphorical application of animals, and a theme questioning if humans can coexist with nature to bring us closer to our main character and her internal dilemma throughout the story.

Think about the men, apart from the hunter, mentioned in the story? How are they characterized? Is the absence of men from Sylvia’s world (up until the arrival of the hunter) a significant factor in the story?

Throughout “The Black Walnut Tree”, the speaker is reminded of her forefathers while contemplating her and her mother’s predicament involving the removal of the obstructive tree. In line sixteen, the poem shifts from a negative tone to a more positive one, for the speaker previously talked about the tree’s “dark boughs...smashing the house” before encountering a change in heart which moves her to

Sylvia’s final decision in “A White Heron” definitely illustrated how “Self-preservation is the first law of nature.” Even though Sylvia was poor and the hunter can “make her rich with money” (p. 1603) and “is thrilled by the dream of love” when the hunter appeared in her life (p. 1601), she chose to do the best she could for those who were to follow her. When the hunter asked her about the white heron, Sylvia remembered how the white heron and her “watched the sea and the morning together” and how she couldn’t “tell the heron’s secret and give its life away” (1603). This almost mystical encounter between her and the white heron’s nature reminded and strengthened her emotional attachment to nature. Even though her own life wasn’t the one at

Through life experiences we learn that some things in life are more important than money. By using the "Archetypal Cycle of Human experience" I will be able to explain the importance of each stage in the story " A white Heron" by Sarah Orne Jewett.

This is the most popular of her short stories, it discovers the inside conflict freshly learned her love of nature and stimulate interest in the opposite gender. Sylvia, a shy nine-year-old, who recognizes must decide between white heron’s nest, which is a rare case, loyalty to belongings of nature and the gratitude and friendship of white young hunters, who want that add to his collection of stuffed birds (Hurn, n.d). Sarah Orne Jewett has fame as feminist and romantic through her pieces of literature. Her works reflects her personal experience as a little girl in Maine (A white Heron’ by Sarah Orne Jewett: Summary, Symbolism, and Analysis, 2014).

In second part of the story Sylvia is actually excited that she is the only one able to reveal the heron’s location to the man. In order to do so she must climb the pine tree to view the forest. Sylvia is described with birdlike features while climbing: “with her bare feet and fingers that inched and held like bird’s claws to the monstrous ladder.” As she climbs farther up the tree it also described with birdlike qualities. The tree appears to be restraining Sylvia from making it to the top: “the sharp, dry twigs caught and held her and scratched her like angry talons.” The human like descriptions Jewett uses here shows that Sylvia is one with the environment around her. Even though the tree is challenging her, it is also supporting her.

In his poems, Randall Jarrell creates feeling verging on sentimentality. The use of children as characters or a child’s point of view creates nostalgia every person can identify with. Childlike themes like fairy tales or the use of dream-work add to the nostalgia and sentiment.

There are around 64 different species of herons. And out of the 64, I chose the green heron. I chose the green heron because despite it being smaller than most herons, it’s capable of doing many things. For example, the green heron can extend its neck to catch small fish. It can go from a tiny bird to a still tiny bird with a giraffe neck in seconds. If you’re curious about more facts about the green heron, you can continue reading.

Living in the 21st century, it is so easy to get caught up in the hectic pace of life. Our egoistic and obsessive natures are forever fantasizing about always wanting more. However, when that doesn’t happen, we quickly blame life and disregard the fact that maybe this could be one of those bad experiences that molds us into becoming a better person. Perhaps influenced by this, John Reibetanz wrote the poem “The Wood Bird,” revealing human’s selfish nature and their inability to appreciate. As the relationship between water and a piece of wood is discovered, Reibetanz is able to show his readers how the word ‘water’ viscously shapes a piece of wood to its perfection, representing precisely the imperfectness of life shapes us. This creation versus destruction capabilities of water is portrayed through the use of metaphors, personification, as well as imagery, depicting exactly how life also has the ability to create and destroy.

This quote from William Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood resumes the themes I will be discussing in this essay. All the poems present different views on childhood by the different poets as they narrate as adults and society bereave children from their innocence, whilst solely others praise their innocence. The themes of childhood and infancy, as well as how the poems relate to each other will be discussed in this essay.