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.
The beauty of the story is about authentically conveying the author’s emotion experience, depicting the true feeling of the characters, and delivering the thought process by putting readers into their shoes, in order to create resonance with the readers, like her emotion for the love of nature, for her struggle towards money, and for the crush she had towards the hunter. Sylvia’s love of nature showed from “As for Sylvia herself, it seemed as if she had never been alive at all before she came to live at the farm. (5)”. She found her real self here, embracing the nature, knowing every life that lived here, and fully enjoying the freedom in the woods, just like a jungle fairy.
Sylvia’s struggle towards the hunter is also lifelike. The hunter used the money to tempt Sylvia, which drove her crazy. “No amount of thought, could decide how many wished-for treasure the ten dollars, so lightly spoken, would buy”. (13) It is the original and authentic feeling that most kids can get, but the author didn’t omit the impact of money
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
“Day of the Butterfly” by Alice Munro is a story involving two girls and their short lasting friendship. In their sixth grade class, Myra does not socialize. She spends most of her time taking care and watching her little brother Jimmy. For the first time in years one of her classmates, Helen, feels slightly bad for her and makes an effort to connect with her. Right after their meeting, Myra is sick with leukemia and she becomes the most talked about person among her peers. They visit her in the hospital bringing gifts and kind words. Helen also brings a gift for her but feels that everything her classmates have given Myra are “guilt-tinged offerings”. They have similarities and differences. Myra and Helen are both are poor and
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.
After a complete analysis of “Beauty” by Tony Hoagland, there are multiple ways he succeeds in writing a meaningful poem. Each of the literary devices used played an important role in perfecting his poem. Hoagland did an excellent job at sending a message and his tone played an important role in making the message more sincere. Hoagland's use of imagery, figurative language, and personification made his poem more entertaining to read. Throughout this poem, Tony Hoagland shows that beauty, along with poetry, goes deeper than the
Most children are not very fond of reading books in school. I was one of those children until I read a novel called, “The Other Side of Dark” written by Joan Lowery Nixon in the 4th grade. My school had held a book fair during the week of open house. As a child, all children want the toys and games they had at the book fair, not bothering to even glance at the books. My mother told me to look for a book that was not only easy for me to read but something that I would enjoy. I walked around our petite library, which was where the book fair was being held, and scanned the various novels that were displayed until one caught my eye. I was only 10 years old looking for a book without the knowledge of what types of literature that interested me. As I turned the corner at the end of the library I caught a glimpse of a hardcover novel called “The Other Side of Dark”. On the back of novel I read the synopsis which was about a 13 year-old girl who was shot and put into coma until she was 17 years old waking up to discovering that her family was also murdered by the same person who shot her 4 years ago. I was quickly captivated by this summary on the back of the novel and persuaded to read further. Open house was coming to an end and my family and I headed back to our house in La Mirada, California. One of our homework assignments was to read at least 20 minutes a night to improve our reading skills. We quickly arrived at our home and I
Reading the book, The Other Side of the River, by Alex Kotlowitz, the author writes about the relationship between two towns in Michigan, and the death of a young boy named Eric McGinnis. The two towns, Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, are called the “Twin Cities”, but are ironically not related in any way. St. Joseph is 95 percent white, while Benton Harbor is impoverished and is 92 percent black. Throughout the book Kotlowitz questions the residents from both towns and how they are affected by the environment around them. The author also starts with the climax on the first page of the book – the death of Eric, and uses this as an technique to tell the story of the disagreements between the two towns.
Sarah Orne Jewett was an American novelist who specialized in regionalism. “A White Heron”, a short story from this semester makes this evident. The story has Sylvia, a little girl, on the rural coat of New England. Throughout the story Jewett uses specific details to create a superb, realistic
Throughout the book, “The Western Place” , by Maxine Hong Kingston, there is a differential gap between the two sisters who come from two different sides of the world. A lot of differences between the two sisters and their personal lifestyles comes from one sister living in America as a Chinese-American and the other sister living in China. In the story Brave Orchid who is the sister that is brave, outspoken, and sometimes cruel sees life as a bundle of opportunities to take with no regret. However, it is different when her sister Moon Orchid comes into town from China because she is the complete opposite. Moon Orchid is rather humble, timid, and quiet while she observes the lifestyle of her sister and nieces and nephews.
Strangers in the Land of Paradise by Lillian S. Williams explores the settlement of African Americans in Buffalo in the time of the Great Migration. In this book, Williams discusses the process in which migrants from the South made their own black communities in Buffalo while bringing their beliefs and traditions with them, and having those beliefs evolve over time in a new setting. Her work sheds light on the experiences of blacks in Buffalo during a time where many changes were occurring; the Civil War had just ended and the Industrial Revolution was underway. She also speaks on how Buffalo was unique in that it became the final point for those escaping the racism and violence in the South, since it was the last point before crossing into Canada. In her own words, “the book examines the growth and development of Buffalo, the movement of European immigrants and African American migrants into the city, and their ability to secure an economic foothold. It tests the extent to which family and friendship networks for blacks were a significant force in their migration and acculturation. It also describes the establishment of institutions that African Americans created to shape their modern, urban community" (p. xiv).
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.
Harvey Fierson once said,“never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accepts no one’s definition of your life, but define it yourself.” Throughout life many people struggle to find who they are or the person they want the world to see. One can say this dilemma stems from the human need of belongingness, as demonstrated in Maslow 's hierarchy of needs. “Day of the Butterfly” by Alice Munro depicts this idea through the relationship, that is formed between the main characters Helen and Myra. Helen can be viewed as a dynamic and round character because her personality shifted a lot throughout the story. The reader was also allowed to see her battle with “self” from the beginning to end of the narrative. Myra on the other hand, would be a foil or static character. This is due to the fact that Myra remained constant and she was the reason behind Helen’s actions and thoughts. However for this analysis we will focus solely on Helen and how her character was affected and evolved. She was a very weak-minded, submissive, and scared individual, who later exhibit qualities of bravery. At the end we can see how she began to step into who she was as an individual. Now we will look at how Helen was affected mentally, socially and emotionally.
Claire Standish or “the princess” portrays the stereotypical popular teenage girl in The Breakfast Club. She is in detention with everyone else because she decided to skip class and go shopping, which also plays into the stereotypical teen girl image. It can also be assumed that she is spoiled and rich since her father tried to get her out of detention but failed, and she mentions to the group that her parents only use her to get back at the other one. She brings a fancy lunch of sushi while the other teens either have nothing or the standard lunch one’s parents might pack for them. There are a couple of times in the movie that she brings up her social standing and could even be considered as looking down on those who are not as popular as her. Even closer towards the end of the movie she informs the others that if they were to say hello to her in the hallway in front of her friends, she would have no choice but to ignore them. By the end of the movie, she has opened up to everyone else about her fears of letting her peers down and has formed a close relationship with Bender.
A White Heron written in 1886 is about a girl who comes to her grandmother's house in the country side she falls in love with the nature and after some time adjusts in the new surroundings. Being familiarized with the surroundings, a hunter offers her a considerable reward for finding a Heron for his personal collection. Being human she agrees to find the bird and accompanies the hunter but fails to find the heron. Later on she goes alone and finds the bird's nest by climbing on the tallest tree, this in turn reignites her love and passion for the nature and the thought of helping the hunter and killing of the Heron becomes cynical. She keeps it a secret and Hunter goes back without his prize. (Jewett, 2009)
In my final picture book read aloud, I am going to read The Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister. The main element of craft that I am going to highlight are the illustrations. The illustrations play a very important role in this book because it catches the children’s attention and helps bring the book to life. In The Rainbow Fish, a fish, named Rainbow Fish, has the most beautiful sliver scales that sparkle and shine (Pfister 4). However, Rainbow Fish is proud and selfish, and does not want to share his beautiful scales with the other fish (Pfister 8-11).
In both the painting and poem, Helen’s beauty connects the idea that beauty equals power and plays a part in overpowering men. Helen represents nature, in both pieces of work, with her perfect beauty that is irresistible to men by the earthly elements used to describe her character. The theme portrayed in both the painting and the poem is that women blessed with the gift of beauty can use it against others in either a good or bad way making them feel a sense of