An Analysis of
A White Heron
by Brandi Mahon
"A White Heron", by Sarah Jewett is a story of a girl turned woman's
spirit being set free. Sylvia, a young girl who was raised in a crowded
manufacturing town seems to come alive with the move to the farm to live with her
grandmother. The narrator shows her innate feministic side when she describes
the hunter's whistle as "determined and somewhat aggressive," unlike a friendly
bird's whistle. The narrator first refers to this man as as the enemy and states
that the young girl dare not to look boldly at the man. This is representative
of how repressed women felt and were at that time. Another example of this was
the grandmother's remark about her son being able to wander off to explore the
world. She expresses that if she could have, she would have done it too. But of
course women have their roles and places in society and that social order is not
to be messed with. The hunter offers Sylvia $10 in exchange for locating his next
hunting prize, the white heron. She wonders what treasures $10 would bring her.
The next day she went with him to hunt for the birds, although she can't
understand why her new found friend would kill the very thing he proclaims to
love and admires so much. The author states, At this moment Slyvia has the need and desire to be loved
by this man and makes the decision to help him find the white heron. If she
chooses to help this young hunter win his prize then she will be going along with
society's norms for a young lady, and lose her own identiy. In order to locate
this bird she has to climb the tallest tree around, a feat in itself. The climb
up the massive tree was decidedly the turning point for Sylvia. She became so
close to nature and felt its existence all around. When she finally saw the
white heron, something inside changed. She saw herself in the white heron and
knew that if she divulged the white heron's location, she would not only be
helping to the destruction of the bird's spirit but her own as well. This power
she now has is something that will comfort her because now she is alone; alone
with nature. And as one must have an identity to survive in nature, the narrator
must save own identity in order to survive.
