A White Heron Literary Analysis

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What would you do if yo were faced with a situation that would either benefit yourself or change the fate of something else. Sylvia is faced with a situation that determines the fate of a white heron in Sarah Orne Jewett’s “A White Heron”. When Sylvia walks outside, she meets a hunter/ornithologist that wants to capture a white heron. When the hunter offers ten dollars to anyone who helps him find the bird, Sylvia struggles to decide to tell him about her findings of the bird. A symbol is “an object, action, or event that represents something, or creates a range of associations, beyond itself.” (Sharon Hamilton, ed. A Handbook of Literary Terms) The hunter is a symbol of money that represents struggle and hope. When Sylvia is given an opportunity …show more content…

When Sylvia is thinking to herself, she thinks of things that she could buy with ten dollars: “No amount of thought, that night, could decide how many wished-for treasures the ten dollars, so rightfully spoken of, would buy. (4)” When Sylvia dreams of things she could buy, she does not think about how she has to help find the white heron. Sylvia shows that has not gained a respect for the bird’s life yet. When Sylvia finally reaches the top of the tree, she sees the “white heron’s nest in the sea of green branches (5)” and thinks of how her finding is a reward for climbing the tree. Sylvia climbs the tree for a ten dollar reward, but realizes that the real reward is nature. She shows that she has a respect for nature when she stops to look at the white heron and realize how beautiful it is. After Sylvia gets home, the hunter “ waits to hear the story [Sylvia] can tell (6)” so he knows where to find the white heron. When Sylvia is asked what her findings are, she forgets about the reward and thinks of how beautiful the white heron is. Now that Sylvia has seen the bird, she no longer has hope for the reward but respect for the bird’s life. In conclusion, the hope of the reward does not influence Sylvia’s decision on whether to tell the hunter about the white heron, or to keep it a

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