A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett
"A White Heron," written by Sarah Orne Jewett, is a notable short story that exemplifies the "local color" genre, vividly portraying life in rural Maine. The narrative centers on Sylvia, a young girl who has recently moved from a bustling city to a serene farm environment, where she feels a deep connection to nature and its inhabitants. This shift ignites an internal struggle in Sylvia as she grapples with her newfound love for the natural world and her burgeoning feelings for a young hunter who is intent on capturing a rare white heron.
As Sylvia navigates her relationship with the hunter, she is faced with a moral dilemma: to maintain her loyalty to nature or to seek the companionship of the boy who appreciates her knowledge of birds. The story culminates in a pivotal moment when Sylvia climbs a towering pine tree to locate the heron’s nest, a journey that symbolizes her connection to the wild. Ultimately, Sylvia chooses to protect the nest and the heron, rejecting the hunter's pleas and affirming her allegiance to the natural world over human desire. The story beautifully examines themes of innocence, loyalty, and the conflict between human relationships and the natural environment.
On this Page
A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett
First published: 1886
Type of plot: Realism, regional
Time of work: The late nineteenth century
Locale: Rural Maine
Principal Characters:
Sylvia , the protagonist, a nine-year-old girlMrs. Tilley , her grandmotherA young hunter , who is from the city
The Story
Sarah Orne Jewett's "A White Heron," the most popular of her short stories, is a prime example of a "local color" story in its depiction of the life of a particular region—in this case, her native Maine. Jewett explores the internal conflict that a transplanted city girl experiences between her newly acquired love for nature and her natural and awakening interest in the opposite sex. Sylvia, who knows where the rare white heron has its nest, must decide between an allegiance to the things of nature and the gratitude and friendship of the young hunter who seeks to add the white heron to his collection of stuffed birds.
In the first part of the story, Jewett establishes Sylvia as a "child of nature" who is somewhat wary of people. After having spent the first eight years of her life in a "crowded manufacturing town," where she had been harassed by a "great red-faced boy," she is now at home in the "out-of-doors." Her grandmother, who rescued Sylvia from the city, believes that Sylvia had never been "alive" until her arrival at the farm. According to her grandmother, "the wild creatur's counts her one o' themselves." In fact, when Sylvia first appears, she is driving home a cow named Mistress Moolly, which is described as Sylvia's "valued companion." Sylvia feels more at home with her "natural" society than she does with "folks."
As a result, when she hears "a boy's whistle, determined, and somewhat aggressive," she is "horror-stricken," but the young man overcomes her fear and accompanies her to her grandmother's farm. Having spent the day hunting, he seeks food and shelter for the night, and Mrs. Tilley obliges him. The young hunter discusses his collection of birds, listens to Mrs. Tilley talk about her son Dan's hunting, and learns that Sylvia "knows all about birds." He then offers ten dollars for information about the whereabouts of the white heron. The next day, Sylvia accompanies him as he hunts, and his "kind and sympathetic" behavior wins her "loving admiration," although she cannot understand why he kills the very birds he professes to like.
The second part of the story concerns Sylvia's decision to climb the "great pine-tree" in order to gain a vantage point from which she can discover the white heron's nest, which she apparently plans to reveal to her new friend. Rising before her grandmother and the hunter, Sylvia sneaks out of the house and makes her way through the forest to the tall pine tree. After climbing the nearby white oak, she negotiates the "dangerous pass" from the oak to the pine and finally reaches the top, from which she can see both the "vast and awesome world" and the white heron's nest, which holds the white heron and his mate. (Jewett thereby balances the two worlds: nature and the "outside" world beyond the farm.) When she returns to the farm, however, Sylvia will not reveal the location of the nest, despite the rebukes of her grandmother and the entreaties of the hunter, who thought he had won her over.
Bibliography
Blanchard, Paula. Sarah Orne Jewett: Her World and Her Work. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1994.
Cary, Richard. Sarah Orne Jewett. New York: Twayne, 1962.
Cary, Richard, ed. Appreciation of Sarah Orne Jewett: Twenty-nine Interpretive Essays. Waterville, Maine: Colby College Press, 1973.
Church, Joseph. Transcendent Daughters in Jewett's "Country of the Pointed Firs." Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1994.
Donovan, Josephine. Sarah Orne Jewett. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1980.
Howard, June, ed. New Essays on "The Country of the Pointed Firs." Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Matthiessen, F. O. Sarah Orne Jewett. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1929.
Morgan, Jeff. Sarah Orne Jewett's Feminine Pastoral Vision: "The Country of the Pointed Firs." Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2002.
Nagel, Gwen L., ed. Critical Essays on Sarah Orne Jewett. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1984.
Nagel, Gwen L., and James Nagel. Sarah Orne Jewett: A Reference Guide. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1978.
Renza, Louis. "A White Heron" and the Question of Minor Literature. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984.
Roman, Margaret. Sarah Orne Jewett: Reconstructing Gender. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1992.
Sherman, Sarah Way. Sarah Orne Jewett: An American Persephone. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1989.
Silverthorne, Elizabeth. Sarah Orne Jewett: A Writer's Life. Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press, 1993.