A White Heron Essay

1600 Words7 Pages
Critical Analysis: A White Heron In Sarah Orne’s, A White Heron, Sylvia’s journey from her home in the city and her desire to help the hunter was necessary in order to show the growth that occurred in her while she transitioned from childhood to young adulthood. The story starts with a young girl named Sylvia who came from the city to live with her Grandma in the country. As a child in the country, her daily routine is one of leisure. One day, she meets a young hunter in the woods who asks for help in finding a rare bird for his stuffed bird collection. Sylvy agrees to help the hunter because she has a crush on him. When Sylvy realizes the outcome of revealing the location of the bird, she decides against telling the hunter. Sylvy goes through a maturity process to reach this point. Before Sylvy lived in the country she lives in the city. A sense of stifled living and stunted growth are portrayed through the description of Sylvy’s living situation in the city. “Everybody said that it was a good change for a little maid who had tried to grow for eight years in a crowded manufacturing town” (Orne 651). It is when she moves…show more content…
In the woods she climbs from a small oak tree to the tallest pine in the forest in which she knows the white heron lives, “She crept out along the swaying oak limb at, and took the daring step across into the old pine-tree” (Orne 656). This is where she literally transitions from one stage to another. She crosses from the symbolic smaller tree (childhood) to the larger pine tree (maturity). She then climbs to the top of the pine tree where she sees the nest of the white heron. “…for the heron has perched on a pine bough not far beyond yours, and cries back to his mate on the nest, and plumes his feathers for the new day!” (Orne 657). Finding the nest is symbolic of her new found
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