Rebecca Davis

The Heron or the Hunter

“A white heron” is a short story written by author Sarah Orne Jewett. The story was published in

1886 by Houghton, Mifflin and Compony (Buseman). Sarah Orne Jewett was an American novelist and

short story writer. Born in 1849 and raised in Maine, Jewett spend a lot of her youth accompanying her

father, who was a doctor, to checkups and appointments (Buseman). Jewett spent much time seeing the

countryside and meeting the locals with her father. It’s possible that this is when her love for nature

began which fueled many stories focusing on realism with beautiful imagery. In 1868 at age 19, Jewett

published her first real story "Jenny Garrow's Lovers", and her reputation grew throughout the 1870s

and 1880s (Roman). Jewett made her reputation with the novella, “The Country of the Pointed Firs”

(1896). “A Country Doctor” (1884), a novel reflecting her father and her early ambitions for a medical

career, and “A White Heron” (1886). The collection of short stories is among her finest work (Roman).

A white heron is filled with beautiful realistic imagery of the countryside and the journey of the

main character, Sylvia. Realistic imagery in a key characteristic in realism stories and this story has lots of

it. The third person narrator follows a young girl named Sylvia who recently moved to live with her

grandmother in the country. Although Sylvia has no friends or companions, she is not alone, she plays

hide and seek with her pet cow, watches a hop toad while sitting at the dinner table, and enjoys being

outside in nature. While out on the trail with her pet cow, Sylvia is startled by an encounter with a

hunter who is searching for a rare bird for his collection. The hunter is friendly and seeks a place to sleep

for the night so sylvia takes the man to her home where her grandmother, Miss Tilly, welcomes the

hunter inside. The second characteristic of realism focuses on middle to upper class characters, and we

see that sylvia and her grandmother are, as well as the hunter. They own a home and are well off

enough to offer a meal and housing for the hunter which indicates that they are at least middle-class

individuals.

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That night over a simple meal the young hunter discusses his collection of birds and grows

excited when he hears that Sylvia knows the land well. The next day while she accompanies the man on

the hunt, his kind and sympathetic behavior wins Sylvias loving admiration. Although she can’t

understand why he kills the very birds he claims to love so much. In the second part of the story, we see

Sylvia deciding to climb the great pine tree to locate the bird’s nest which she will reveal to the young

hunter. She makes the daring climb to the top of the tree and ultimately finds the white heron’s nest.

The challenges sylvia faces is whether she should help this man and as the story progresses, she

discovers her love for nature and the creatures that inhibit it. We see here the second characteristic of

realism which is when the author seeks to exert a positive social or moral influence. The positive moral

influence lies within sylvia and her love for the natural world. Yes, she wants to help the hunter, but her

love for nature and animals outshines anything else.

The final characteristic of realism is the focus on internal thoughts and emotions of the main

character as apposed to the plot. Throughout this story, we see this characteristic quite often. Even

though Sylvia is a shy and somewhat reserved child, Jewett’s writing allows the reader to feel as if we

are right next to sylvia, experiencing everything with her. Another interesting thing that Jewett does

towards the end of this story is she inserts authorial intrusion. The narration changes when we see “…

now look down again, Sylvia, where the green marsh is set among the birches… look, Look!” (Jewett 58).

It's as if Jewett is speaking directly to Sylvia here. Authorial intrusion occurs when the author inserts

their own voice into the story to speak directly to the characters or to the reader (Kaplan). In the

nineteenth century authorial intrusions were often used to inform the readers of the back story or to

promote good morals (Kaplan).

Some critics view this story as an affirmation of feminist sensibility. Elizabeth Ammons suggests

that Jewett recreates a "male-defined narrative structure" to ultimately reject it, just as Sylvia resists

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patriarchal heterosexual institutions in favor of the "natural realm of the mother"(Kelchner). George

Held states Sylvia's resistance to "masculine allure" is a commitment to her own values and "her natural

self” (Kelchner).

“A white Heron” is a lovely tale of a young girl trying to find her way in the world. She’s faced

with a tough decision and must choose between the hunter and the heron and ultimately chooses the

heron. It’s a classic realism short story with beautiful, detailed imagery. There’s no doubt that Jewett’s

upbringing in the New England area has contributed to her love for the natural world which conveys

through her stories. Jewett has a great ability to describe the events that are transpiring with such detail

that it makes the reader feel like what they are reading is not a fictional tale but a real-life story.

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Works Cited

Buseman, Laura Jean. “The realism of Sarah Orne Jewett's characterization of men.” University of
Arkansas, 1993.
Jewett, Sarah Orne. “A white heron.” Vol. 2. Houghton Mifflin, 1923.

Kaplan, Amy. ”The social construction of American realism.” University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Kelchner, Heidi. "Unstable Narrative Voice in Sarah Orne Jewett's" A White Heron". Colby quarterly, 28.2

(1992): 4.

Roman, Margaret. “Sarah Orne Jewett: Reconstructing Gender.” University of Alabama Press, 1992.