White Heron Essays (Examples)

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Essay
White Heron - Sarah Orne
Pages: 10 Words: 3711

But when she gets back to her grandmother's house, and finds the young hunter and her grandmother waiting at the door, and questioning her, and when that "...splendid moment has come to speak of the dead hemlock tree" and the treasure it holds, she "...does not speak after all, though the old grandmother fretfully rebukes her." This man can make them "rich" with his ten-dollar reward, and they are very poverty stricken.
Here is where Jewett shows the realism in her literature. Sylvia's character is very important at this point in the story because she decides against selling the white heron out for ten dollars. Sylvia isn't sure why she is doing it, and is even a bit perplexed; "...when the great world for the first time puts out a hand to her, must she thrust it aside for a bird's sake?" Jewett poses. Sylvia hears the "murmur of the…...

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Works Cited

Atkinson, Michael. "The Necessary Extravagance of Sarah Orne Jewett: Voices of Authority in White Heron'." Studies in Short Fiction, 19.1 (1982): 71-74. Gale Research.

Bily, Cynthia. "An overview of 'A White Heron'." Exploring Short Stories, Gale Research

1998).

Chase, Richard. "Realism in American Literature, 1860-1890." Retrieved April 13, 2007, at   site material excerpted from Chase's book the American Novel and its Tradition).http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/realism.htm .(Web

Essay
White Heron Innocence Experience Virginity
Pages: 6 Words: 1981

He doesn't know how to enjoy the heron the way Sylvia does, and all he can think of to do with it is to kill it and stuff it -- to bend it to his will and make it something pretty for display, and a testament to his own prowess and skill. This is indicative of the way he treats the world, as his greeting of Sylvia's grandmother on first meeting her clearly shows: "Put me anywhere you like,' he said. 'I must be off early in the morning, before day; but I am very hungry, indeed. You can give me some milk at any rate, that's plain'" (Jewett par. 12).
In addition to this attitude and what it implies for his view and treatment of the heron, there are also other indicators regarding Sylvia's sexual awakening in the story. On her way home through the woods at the very…...

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Work Cited

Jewett, Sarah Orne. "A White Heron." Retrieved from the Online Archive of Nineteenth-Century Women's Writings. Ed. Glynis Carr on 3 October 2009. http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/gcarr/19cUSWW/SOJ/AWH.html

Essay
White Heron Sarah Orne Jewett
Pages: 2 Words: 665

The hunter is kind to her but is not considerate of her feelings and is only thinking of his own desire to find the heron. He tries to use the appeal of money to achieve his purpose as he knows that both Sylvia and her grandmother would find it very useful and Sylvia thinks that "no amount of thought that night could decide how many wished-for treasures the ten dollars, so lightly spoken of, would buy"(Jewett). The conflict is clear in "she could not understand why he killed the very birds he seemed to like so much"(Jewett) Sylvia is seen to become aware that the only thing that the man wanted from her was the achievement of his goal of finding the heron and he was not going to consider that she loved the animals and birds and she understands that he is not a kind man. Her independence…...

Essay
White Heron Sarah One Jewett's
Pages: 2 Words: 702


Sylvia develops a fondness for "The Stranger" as she spends more time with him, traveling through the bushes trying to find the elusive bird. "The Stranger" has offered $10 to Sylvia if she could give him any information regarding the whereabouts of the White Heron. Sylvia develops a great desire to please this new friend of hers, and concocts a secret plan, involving a tall pine tree, to locate the nest of the White Heron.

Before dawn, Sylvia sneaks out and heads for the tall pine tree and climbs to the very top of it, incurring scratches and bruises on the way. When she reaches the top, sunlight begins to appear, and "Sylvia's face was like a pale star" a top the tall tree. At this point in the story, there is a shift in imagery and tone, as the author uses words like "golden," bewildering light," "white sails of ships"…...

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Reference

Jewett, Sarah Orne (1886). A White Heron. Retrieved 6/18/2007 at  http://www.public.coe.edu/~theller/soj/awh/heron.htm .

Essay
The Innocence of a Child Point of View in A White Heron
Pages: 5 Words: 1901

The Effect of Point of View in Literature How does point of view determine a story’s effect? “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett is told in the third person narration style, but the point of view that the narrator adopts is Sylvia’s—the little girl who feels connected with nature and enjoys the beauty, peace and harmony that she experiences in the outdoors. Her perspective allows the author to depict the ornithologist as a kind of barbaric hunter who is out to destroy nature so that he can cruelly and coldly study it in his lab. To the girl, he is “the enemy” (Jewett)—the hunter who is out to catch the white heron and make of it a prize. He offers money to Sylvia and her grandmother if the girl will just confess where she saw the bird so that he can snatch it from the wild. Sylvia, too loyal to…...

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Works Cited

Hirvela, Alan, and Diane Belcher. \\"Coming back to voice: The multiple voices and identities of mature multilingual writers.\\" Journal of Second Language Writing 10.1-2 (2001): 83-106.

Jewett, Sarah Orne. “A White Heron”  

Oster, Judith. \\"Seeing with different eyes: Another view of literature in the ESL class.\\" TESOL Quarterly 23.1 (1989): 85-103.

http://www.public.coe.edu/~theller/soj/awh/heron.htm #gifts

Essay
Literary Comparison
Pages: 2 Words: 847

Female Freedom
The short stories "The hite Heron" by Sarah Orne Jewett and "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin focus on strong and sensitive heroines who seek to forge some sort of path of autonomy in a world of men. It is without question that men control the worlds that these characters find themselves in, and each protagonist struggles to find some sort of autonomy within those worlds. Both stories depict the successful achievement of liberation from these masculine worlds by the heroines -- though the liberation occurs in dramatically different ways.

Sylvia in "The hite Heron" is accosted with the adult world of men when she encounters the hunter in the forest. However, she doesn't succumb her values to this strange and exciting world. If anything she becomes stronger for it. Sylvia becomes friendlier with the hunter, and he even provides her with a jack-knife as a gift. Clearly…...

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Works Cited

Jewett, Sarah (2004). A White Heron. New York: Godine Publishers

Chopin, Kate (2010). Story of an Hour. New York: Harper Collins.

Essay
Sylvia's Coming of Age in
Pages: 1 Words: 327


The initiation process is a success because Sylvia remains true to her beliefs. She is pulled in two directions and is forced to make a decision. She can do as her grandmother wishes and reveal the secret for a price, which she does not want to do or keep the secret. e read that she "does not speak after all, though the old grandmother fretfully rebukes her, and the young man's kind, appealing eyes are looking straight in her own" (10). She learns early at the age of nine the conflict that results when one must decide between one's own convictions and the desires of others. Because she listened to her gut, she will not feel as though she sold out for money and though she might not realize this for years to come, she made the right decision.

orks Cited

Sarah Orne Jewett. "A hite Heron." A hite Heron and Other…...

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Works Cited

Sarah Orne Jewett. "A White Heron." A White Heron and Other Stories. Whitefish: Kessinger Publishing. 2004.

Essay
Story of Chopin
Pages: 2 Words: 622

Life
One can learn a number of things about life from reading Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour." The same sentiment applies to reading "A White Heron," which was written by Sarah Orne Jewett. Both of these tales seemingly emphasize the frailty of life, and imply that the decisions one makes throughout life can be binding -- or become easily undone.

The protagonist of a "A White Heron," Sylvia, faces quite a quandary in Jewett's tale. She has all but agreed to help a hunter find a white heron so that the young man can slay it. In fact, the young man has promised to give anyone who can find this bird a sizeable sum of money. Enticed by such a reward, Sylvia is bent on finding the bird… until she does. After climbing high in a tree to find the curious creature, the young girl is struck by its…...

Essay
Women's Roles 1865-1912 Social Class
Pages: 5 Words: 1683

For instance, Sylvy could have decided to go with the man and leave her rural life. She could have left the life of poverty and gone back to the city. Had she made this choice she knew that she would never have to worry about money again. However, having come from the city originally, she also knew the personal freedom that she would be giving up. She felt that if she went away with the guest, she could learn to serve, follow, and love him, "as a dog loves" (Jewett, a White Heron, Harper Series, p. 1646). This line summarizes the oppression of the urban woman in the late 1880s.
Jewett tells her readers much about her feelings about social class and the political position of women during her time. She portrays women as "followers" of men. She alludes to the position of women as "servants" of man. She compares…...

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References

McQuade, D., Atwan, R., Banta, M., Kaplan, J., Minter, D., Stepto, R., Tichi, C., & Vendler, H. (Eds.). (1999). The Harper single volume of American literature (3rd ed.).Sarah Orney Jewett, a White Heron, (pp. 1639-1646. New York: Longman.

Essay
Sarah Orne Jewett and Feminism
Pages: 7 Words: 2040

Throughout her novels and short stories, Jewett uses the weakness or malicious of the male characters to allow her female characters more power and therefore independence. Many scholars also believe that Jewett was also commenting on the decreased importance of the old New England male image of fisherman and provider of the household. As New England itself became industrialized, the role of the sole provider as the male failed to keep its significance which would then increase the separation between male and females. Therefore, Jewett sometimes intentionally paralyzes the male characters within New England contexts, and then places more social and economic power within the hands of the women of New England; who she portrays as much more adaptable then their male counterparts.
In the midst of this failing male patriarchal system, Jewett presents a myriad of strong female characters who are more than amble to handle life without such…...

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Works Cited

Blanchard, Paula. Sarah Orne Jewett: Her World and Her Work. Addison-Wesley. 1994.

Jewett, Sarah Orne. The Country of the Pointed Furs. Signet Classic. 2000.

Jewett, Sarah Orne. "The White Heron." VOA News. 2006. Retrieved 30 Nov 2008 at  http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-19-voa1.cfm?CFID=73945542&CFTOKEN=65579149 .

Roman, Margaret. Sarah Orne Jewett. University of Alabama Press.

Essay
Environmental Themes
Pages: 20 Words: 5447

Environmental Themes in Grapes of rath
This essay reviews environmental themes from the following five books: Dust Bowl by Donald orster, The Grapes of rath by John Steinbeck, Everglades: River of Grass by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Killing Mr. atson by Peter Matthiessen, and River of Lakes by Bill Belleville. This paper discusses the role that culture has played in environmental issues during the past century. Five sources used. MLA format.

Environmental Themes

Humans from the very beginning of their existence have had an impact, for better or worse, on the environment. Man has for the most part tried to control the environment to suit his needs or tastes of the era. Over-grazing, over hunting, ignoring the importance crop rotations, dam building, and toxic dumping, are but a few of the ways man tries to control. Few societies have ever considered any of the above when it comes to the environment. There are a…...

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Works Cited

Belleville, Bill. River of Lakes. University of Georgia

Press. 2001.

Douglas, Marjory Stoneman. The Everglades River of Grass.

Pineapple Press. 50th Anniversary Edition. 1997.

Essay
EE Cummings Modernist Poet
Pages: 3 Words: 962

Modernist literature refers to a literary period from the first half of the 20th century, one that reacted to the external influences of an increasingly industrialized society, and one that was becoming more and more globalized. This was a population of people who had been hardened and drained by two world wars. This was a population of people who were pondering the future of humanity, human existence, the human condition and their place in the world. When compared to the romantic period, modernism appears edgier and less serene. The romantic period had more of a focus on the natural world and the experience of being; modernism focused more on the inner self, seeing more of a decline and fraught fragmentation with the external world. From a literary perspective, the period meant a subversion of typical norms: modernist prose and poetry played with structure and form in ways that readers weren’t…...

Essay
History of Canadian Labour- the
Pages: 9 Words: 2713

Thus, some suggest that the competition between the workers was crucial. More precisely "competition between high-wage white workers and low-wage Asian workers explains racial exclusion (...) labor competition was the central feature of ethnic division in the working class, and exclusion was the only viable strategy under these circumstances." (Creese, 1988, 294)
Despite this possible explanation there were other factors as well that determined the white workers to exclude Asians. However, there was a sense of lack of organization at the level of immigrant workers especially because they were considered to have no desire for such an organization. Even so, in some cases, there was also a fear of the extremist workers who were considered to be capable of radicalism (Creese, 1988, 294). Other opinions suggest that economic factors as well as ideological ones are also viable for offering an explanation. In this sense, there were irreconcilable differences in terms…...

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References

Creese, G. (1988) "Exclusion or solidarity? Vancouver Workers confront the 'Oriental Problem." BC Studies, University of British Columbia Press.

Heron, C. (1984) '"Laborism and the Canadian Working Class." Labor / Le Travail. Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Marks, L. (1991) "The Knights of Labor and the Salvation Army: religion and working-class culture in Ontario, 1882-1890." Labor / Le Travail, 28, 89-127.

Phelan, C. (2000) Grand Master Workman: Terence Powderly and the Knights of Labor. Westport: Greenwood Press.

Essay
Poisoning Our Planet if it
Pages: 20 Words: 8834

From the point-of-view of the variation and flexibility of the species such cultivated woody crops rank as no more than cornfields. While the tree farms are conveniently be stretched on the private lands, national forests those are considered priceless reservoirs of most of the biological diversity of the nation cannot expand so easily. The commercial logging is considered as the greatest danger for survival of the national forest system. The timber sales are growingly concealed beneath the post fire recovery and fire prevention missions, forest health initiatives and restoration programs. (Endangered Forests: Endangered Freedoms)
Wetlands disappearing

Declining wetlands and reservoir construction are having spectacular influences on a global scale. (the Importance of Wetlands and the Impacts of eservoir Development) the data of USF & WS reveals that the United States added 2.3 million acres in ponds and inland mudflats during the period of mid 1950s and mid1970s. The country added about…...

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References

Acid Rain -- a Contemporary World Problem. Retrieved at Accessed on 3 February, 2005http://www.geocities.com/narilily/acidrain.html.

Acid Rain: Do you need to start wearing a rain hat? Retrieved at   Accessed on 3 February, 2005http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/acidrain.html .

Barney, Gerald O. The Whole World in Our Hands. SF Chronicle. 31 December, 2000. Retrieved at Accessed on 3 February, 2005http://www.mindfully.org/Sustainability/in-Our-Hands.htm.

Bryant, Peter J. Biodiversity and Conservation: A Hypertext Book. Retrieved at Accessed on 3 February, 2005http://darwin.bio.uci.edu/~sustain/bio65/lec05/b65lec05.htm.

Essay
Identity Difference and Social Location
Pages: 3 Words: 1018

Social Location
Speaking from a purely personal perspective, it would be better if all people in the world, specifically the world here in Canada, were completely willing to accept a person because they are a fellow human being. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Bias shows itself in the way that people view different religions, skin colors, and ethnicities. Somalia, and the Somali people, are viewed harshly by the people in this world because of the continual civil war that has raged in the country, and because the predominant religion in the that region is Muslim. The realization that it is difficult for people in this world, whether that be the government of Canada or the average citizen, to accept is that people are people no matter where they are from. My client wants to move his family from Somalia to the relative safety of Canada because he realizes that…...

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References

Dean, R.G. (2001). The myth of cross-cultural competence. Families in Society, 82(6). 623-630.

Gilson, S.F., & Depoy, E. (2002). Theoretical approaches to disability content in social work education. Journal of social Work Education, 38(1). 153-165.

Heron, B. (2004). Gender and exceptionality in north-south interventions: Reflecting on relations. Journal of Gender Studies, 13(2). 117-127.

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