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A White Heron - The Hero's Journey
A White Heron - The Hero's Journey
The Story
Setting/Background
Late 19th century New England
Countryside an undisturbed,
natural environment.
Role of the Natural World in the story.
Sylvia is deeply connected to the
natural world.
-As if she had never been alive at all
until she moves to the countryside (438).
Feminist Criticism
Late 19th century U.S.A
o Women began to talk about universal suffrage and
equal rights.
Jewett chooses a heroine, a little girl, to be the
center-focus of the story (not a boy). She is unlike
other little girls of her time she plays out in the
woods and is one with the animals. She does want to
be domesticated.
Many feminist scholars believe that this story is a
rebuke of the role of women at the time:
Sylvia does not need the young man to find the
White Heron.
The young man is incompetent in leading the journey
(man in the lead role is a failure.)
Sylvia ultimately rejects the money of the young man.
Character Archetypes
Sylvia (protagonist the storys Heroine)
Young man (Anti-Hero?)
Symbolizes man (corrupted)
Mrs. Tilley
Moody the cow (Sylvias main companion)
The Tree (the Obstacle)
The White Heron (antithesis of the young
man.)
o Represents natural world, which is free of
corruption.
Complicated Ending?
Were the birds better friends than their
Concluding analysis
Sylvia is a heroine because she
makes a choice that we, the
readers, most likely approve of.
o Despite temptations, she saves the White
Heron from destruction.
Questions?
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