Free Essays on A White Heron

Short Stories can be interpreted in Many Ways Any type of literary work can contain secret messages throughout the story, and it’s up to the reader to analyze and figure these hidden messages out. Some stories contain themes that are obvious, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have other underlying themes. If the reader reads a literary piece more than once, then they’re apt to pick up much more than when they read it first. In Sarah Ornes Jewetts’, A White Heron, it sounds like a simple story at first, but once it’s analyzed and picked apart, there are many more aspects to the story that are revealed. This story is about an innocent, naà ¯ve girl named Sylvia who matures throughout the story and realizes the importance of keeping the secret of the white heron. When the reader first starts to read A White Heron, it sounds like a simple story about a young, curious girl living with her grandmother on a farm, and a bird hunter who is looking for a heron that the young girl has seen before. This hunter is willing to pay anyone who shows him where the heron is located ten dollars, because the Heron is a very valuable bird that usually isn’t found in that climate. The little girl locates the nest of the herring, but decides not to tell the hunter. After that scene the story ends. Sylvia, the little girl in this story, is portrayed as a young, innocent, curious girl who is discovering the world. By the end of this story, it is quite clear that she has matured a great deal for a nine year old. Sylvia started establishing morals that she will live by for the rest of her life. In the beginning of the short story, A White Heron, Sylvia was very much afraid of the woods which were in the back of her grandmother’s farm house. â€Å"They were going away from the western light, and striking deep into the dark woods..† (Jewett, 183). Her grandmother always warned her about the dangers of the woods, and never to go... Free Essays on A White Heron Free Essays on A White Heron The short story â€Å"A White Heron† written by Sarah Orne Jewett is the story of a young girl and how she becomes her own person in a time when women were supposed to be loyal like dogs toward men. The current views and the beginning of change in those views that some of society held towards the independence of women in the late 1800s can be seen through the character portrayals in â€Å"A White Heron.† In the opening of the story, Sylvia is alone in the woods driving home her cow when she runs into a young man. As the man approaches she refers to him as the enemy, and in a way he is. In the story Sylvia, her grandmother, and even the female cow are living a life that is free of males, yet happy. Suddenly, in comes this hunter to throw off the balance of the independent and female dominant life Sylvia knows. When Sylvia and the hunter return to Sylvia’s grandmother, Mrs. Tilley’s house Sylvia believed Mrs. Tilley had misunderstood the situation and made a mistake in allowing him to stay. The story also showed change when it mentioned the awakening of Mrs. Tilley’s â€Å"long slumbering hospitality,† reminding the reader of how secluded the women were (Charters, 391). Jewett shows men as being proud and always in search of a prize, rather than companionship. When the hunter began to converse with Mrs. Tilley he claimed a love for birds and that he had a great collection of them, in this way he wanted the birds as a prize he could display rather than a companion or friend. With this character and his display of stuffed dead birds, it relates how women were also viewed in this time. In this time women could be considered prizes, part of a man’s belongings to be displayed and admired. It can also be said that women were not expected to really live their life, but instead to become dead inside like the birds were dead. Love for men was similar to ownership. In the story Mrs. Tilley is an older woman who is easily able to rever... Free Essays on A White Heron How does an individual discover ones self? What might a person give up in order to do so? Sylvia, a character from Sarah Orne Jewett’s short story, A White Heron, goes through a plethora of events and personal decision making while unknowingly finding herself. Mrs. Tilley, Sylvia’s grandmother, chose Sylvia to live with on a farm in New England near the woods. Mrs. Tilley thinks Sylvia takes after Dan, her only child still alive other than Sylvia’s mother. Sylvia promptly fell in love with the countryside and would never wish to go home. Whether Sylvia was at home or on the farm, she always did choirs around the house to help out. Miss Moolly, an old clever cow, had to be walked back through the woods into the barn. Knowing how difficult this really was, Sylvia decided to give it a try. After a quick game of hide and go seek, Miss Moolly and Sylvia were on the path and on their way. As the cow stopped for a drink of water, Sylvia heard a loud whistle. She left the cow and attempted to hide behind a bush, but it was too late. A young man spotted her and asked her if she could tell him the way to the main road or where he could find a place to stay the night. Cautiously, Sylvia brings the young man back to grandma’s house. Mrs. Tilley welcomes the gentlemen with a meal and a room to stay in. After dinner the young man and Mrs. Tilley have a conversation about why the young man is out in the woods. The young man explains that he is a bird collector and only needs one more bird, a White Heron, to complet ! e his collection. The man offers Mrs. Tilley ten dollars for any assistance he might get. Immediately the grandmother explains to the man that Sylvia knows where to find such a bird, and she can help him find it. While listening in on the conversation, Sylvia finds herself in a bind. Sylvia knows that her grandmother needs the money, but she also realizes she is the only hope in completing the young man’s coll... Free Essays on A White Heron Short Stories can be interpreted in Many Ways Any type of literary work can contain secret messages throughout the story, and it’s up to the reader to analyze and figure these hidden messages out. Some stories contain themes that are obvious, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have other underlying themes. If the reader reads a literary piece more than once, then they’re apt to pick up much more than when they read it first. In Sarah Ornes Jewetts’, A White Heron, it sounds like a simple story at first, but once it’s analyzed and picked apart, there are many more aspects to the story that are revealed. This story is about an innocent, naà ¯ve girl named Sylvia who matures throughout the story and realizes the importance of keeping the secret of the white heron. When the reader first starts to read A White Heron, it sounds like a simple story about a young, curious girl living with her grandmother on a farm, and a bird hunter who is looking for a heron that the young girl has seen before. This hunter is willing to pay anyone who shows him where the heron is located ten dollars, because the Heron is a very valuable bird that usually isn’t found in that climate. The little girl locates the nest of the herring, but decides not to tell the hunter. After that scene the story ends. Sylvia, the little girl in this story, is portrayed as a young, innocent, curious girl who is discovering the world. By the end of this story, it is quite clear that she has matured a great deal for a nine year old. Sylvia started establishing morals that she will live by for the rest of her life. In the beginning of the short story, A White Heron, Sylvia was very much afraid of the woods which were in the back of her grandmother’s farm house. â€Å"They were going away from the western light, and striking deep into the dark woods..† (Jewett, 183). Her grandmother always warned her about the dangers of the woods, and never to go...