Journal #9 Jewett

Liana Laskin

English 48B

"A White Heron" by Sarah Orne Jewett

February 4, 2009

"Feminist critics have since championed her writing for its rich account of women's lives and voices." (Willa Cather, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Orne_Jewett)

Summary:

The story starts out in a field with Sylvia, a little girl who comes to live on her grandmother Mrs. Tilley's farm to escape city life, taking her cow, Misstress Mooly, home. On the way, she runs into a young hunter and is at first afraid of him. He asks if it is possible to stay the night in her house with her and her grandmother. Sylvia takes him back with her and Mrs. Tilley is more than happy to have him in the house. He is amazed out how nice their home is and pleased to get a good meal and shelter for the night. He tells them that he collects birds not as pets, but to stuff and mount as trophies. It turns out he is searching for the elusive white heron and offers ten dollars to Sylvia to find it; Sylvia, eager to please the hunter, leaves a little before dawn to search for the heron. She climbs the tallest pine tree (bigger and older than the surrounding trees that had been planted more recently) and is able to see the heron. Sylvia is taken aback and has an internal argument with herself over whether or not to tell him of her discovery. She finally decides not to, wanting to protect the bird because telling the hunter would be a betrayal; he ends up leaving for California, disappointed.

Response:

I liked how Jewett almost inserted what happened to her where she grew up as a child into the story by talking about how the giant pine tree dwarfed the surrounding trees because it was older and had been left to grow, becoming a landmark. I think the idea of industry coming in and destroying nature is not one that can only be applied to when the story was originally written; the idea of change may be even more relevant now because most of the United States has become much more technologically advanced, which unfortunately does not leave a lot of room for nature. I think it is also important to note that nature in this story (especially with the huge tree in the second part) is personified, making it much larger than humanity because it has a beauty that cannot be replicated or reproduced if destroyed. This is probably why Sylvia is adamant about protecting the white heron from being caught by the hunter. She is not just keeping a beautiful bird safe, she is also keeping nature from being stripped and forever changed. I also found it interesting that the only male influence in the story is the hunter because he seems to be the only threat in the story with his gun, whereas Sylvia, Mrs. Tilley, Misstress Mooly, and the cat (as well as mother nature) are more peaceful and do not bring sudden change. I do not think this was intentionally done by Jewett, since she had a great relationship with her father, but it does make sense that men would be considered much more violent in comparison to women in this story.