Sarah Orne Jewett
Literary Critique - The White Heron
March/30/2016 12:23 PM Filed: Literary Critiques
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The White Heron’s Secret
In Sarah Orne Jewett’s “The White Heron” a fragile bird symbolizes freedom and faraway places the heroine has never seen. Sylvia is a compassionate woman, and her desire to protect the heron from a hunter’s gun may appear as a simple gesture to save an animal, but her inner motivation is more serious.
Early in the story Jewett writes of the green swamp grass where Sylvia caught sight of the bird. “Not far beyond were the salt marshes and beyond those was the sea, the sea which Sylvia wondered and dreamed about, but never had looked upon, though its great voice could often be heard above the noise of the woods on stormy nights.”
Jewett implies that Sylvia is a sequestered young woman preserving what she values by defending the wildlife near her home. The hunter is portrayed as indiscriminate in his use of the gun, shooting sparrows and thrushes for the thrill. His “sport” Sylvia takes to heart, and she denies him further access to her world.
On a transcendental level, she has communicated with the heron and made a pact never to disclose its whereabouts. If she had told the hunter where to find the heron’s nest, she would have betrayed herself as well as the bird, even though she could have gained the stranger’s friendship. In reality, he is nothing but an intruder.
In a mysterious bond with nature, she maintains her own right to live alongside the white heron by keeping its secret. As lonely as this existence may seem, she has won by retaining her integrity.