32 pages • 1 hour read
Sarah Orne JewettA White Heron
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1886A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Personification
Personification is a literary technique that endows non-human subjects with human characteristics, a device that Jewett uses often. Sylvia considers not only the farm animals, but the wild creatures of the woods, to be her friends.
Mistress Moolly the cow is personified by giving her human characteristics of seeking “pleasure” by running away and the intelligence to “hide herself away among the high huckleberry bushes” and not move because “she had made the discovery that if one stood perfectly still [her bell] would not ring” (669). Mistress Moolly is also referred to as Sylvia’s “valued companion” (669), viewed not just as an animal but as a close friend. The cow has a personality, and she acts according to it; she has wants, needs, and quirks like humans, shown when she walks home with Sylvia quickly because she’s “quite ready to be milked” (669). Sylvia also feels greatly for Mistress Moolly and the farm animals.
Sylvia understands squirrels, birds, farm animals, plants, and other creatures by spending time with them. Thus, her friends are described with various personifications. Bird whistles are “friendly,” “birds and beasts” (670) say good night, and a hop-toad wishes to “get to its hole under the door-step” but is blocked by human bodies (674).
The pine tree is the strongest example of personification. The tree speaks to Sylvia, directing her “look, look!” to see the heron. The tree has a “stately head” (675) and is the “last of its generation” (675) in a family of forest plants. Furthermore, when Sylvia climbs the pine, the robins and squirrels see her as a “housebreaker,” and the white heron himself cries “back to his mate” (678) and grooms his “feathers for the new day” (678) before floating to his home. The animals have homes, love lives, feelings, and goals just as humans do. At the end of the story, the narrator addresses the natural world directly, saying: “Whatever treasures were lost to her, woodlands and summer-time, remember! Bring your gifts and graces and tell your secrets to this lonely country child!” (679).
This literary device connects Sylvia to the natural world (a major theme) and demonstrates her strong empathy with animals and the environment. Sylvia understands their world and shows the animals and woods loving esteem. The frequent personification throughout the story further establishes the animals as intimate companions worth saving, equal to human beings, and more valuable than money.
Setting and Atmosphere
The setting is where (location) and when (time) a story takes place. The atmosphere is the feeling or sense evoked by an environment or setting. The rural setting of “A White Heron” is integral to the story; it allows Sylvia to first be separated from the city and live without feeling afraid of social interaction. The pastoral setting permits her to feel calm, content, and connected to nature, which leads to themes of protecting and respecting the natural world.
The woodland farm setting further allows Sylvia to shift from severe shyness to being more open to communication and accepting of new people in manageable doses, as she meets only one stranger (the hunter) rather than encountering many in an urban landscape. Sylvia’s adoration for nature (and choice to save the heron’s life), the personification of flora and fauna, and the major conflict between the hunter and Sylvia all work exceptionally well due to the forest location.
Imagery and Figurative Language
Imagery in literature is the use of language that appeals to the reader’s senses so they can more easily imagine a story’s situations, characters, emotions, and settings. Writers utilize specific and concrete language to appeal to the reader’s sensory imagination. Figurative language, by contrast, refers to words, phrases, and sentences that convey meaning beyond or different from what they literally say.
Jewett’s use of sensory imagery, with specific descriptions of the region, immerse readers in her story. The setting and wildlife are described in every scene. In fact, Jewett details the sights, sounds, smells, touch, and taste of each setting. She employs lines like “letting her bare feet cool themselves in the shoal water” (670), “a part of the gray shadows and moving leaves” (671), “it stood in some bright green swamp grass” (674), “dark boughs that the wind always stirred, no matter how hot and still the air might be” (675), “woodlands and farms reached for miles in the distance” (677), “a white spot of him like a single floating feather comes up from the dead hemlock and grows larger and rises” (678). These examples show Jewett helping the reader to imagine a forest in Maine. She distills the sensory details, down to the lush green marshes and the way the heron flies. Jewett uses imagery that appeals to all five senses.
Jewett also uses figurative language to compare Sylvia to natural objects like a flower—“she hung her head as if the stem of it were broken” (671)—and nature to artificial objects, as when she says the heron “goes back like an arrow presently to his home” (678). Through these instances of figurative language, the author builds the human-animal connection, instilling the idea that mankind and nature are not that different and can coexist in harmony.
