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  • Essay / Nature versus Society in a White Heron

    In “A White Heron,” Jewett offers his readers a set of contradictory values ​​that can all be included in the theme of the campaign against the city. Jewett emphasizes his preference by having Sylvia choose nature over civilization, while also acknowledging the cost of that choice. Jewett emphasizes his choice to let Sylvia choose nature over society, while also recognizing the cost of this option. The story begins with Sylvia, who lives in the woods of Maine with her grandmother. She meets a tall young man who is looking for a rare white heron while retrieving the cow. He wants to kill him for his collection and stuff him. He offers Sylvia a lot of money only if she helps him find the creature. Sylvia is motivated not only to help with whatever resources she can afford, but more importantly because she views the young man as attractive. Sylvia climbs the big pine in search of the secret nest of the white heron, but she also perceives it as a great adventure to climb. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay There may be good meaning in Sylvia's act of climbing the tree, as she experiences what will be characterized as a transcendental experience when she reaches the top. She locates the mysterious nest of the mysterious white heron, but she also sees the sun rising over the gold-flecked sea, the white sails of ships and hawks flying as well as trees, fields, churches and villages far away. kilometers away. It almost looks like she's going to fly into the clouds too. “Jewett's contrast of Sylvia with the 'miserable dry geranium belonging to a neighboring town' is instructive, for Sylvia thrives in her transfer from a metropolis to the United States, as does the geranium. When she first sees the hunter, she lowers her head "as if the stalk had been damaged." “Jewett means that Sylvia is a rose, which is part of nature. Not only is she embraced by wild animals, but she also feels “as if she were part of the gray shadows and moving leaves.” Sylvia's connections to nature are also expressed in Jewett's rationalization of her bare toes and palms as "chicken claws," a simile that connects her to birds and helps explain her choice. The hunter who seeks the white heron comes from the city and is therefore corrupted by humanity. In fact, like the handsome red-faced boy, he represents a danger to Sylvia: he cannot harm her physically, but he can also control her by inciting her to "sell" humanity by taking money for information. Jewett no longer blames the hunter for the hunt itself; Mrs. Tilley recognizes that hunting creates game birds (partridges) that must be hunted to live. Alternatively, hunting all varieties of birds (including thrushes and sparrows) simply to stuff them according to one's own "choice" is Mrs. Tilley's "foreign" belief and Sylvia's incomprehensible: "She could not understand why he had killed the same birds as it seemed. love a lot. » In impact, his first perception of him because "the enemy" is accurate. The corruption of the “persuasive” young man is marked by his situation at the time he meets him. Like many other moral raiders in the dark woods, the hunter is "lost." When he is guided to the hermitage and given Mrs. Tilley's hospitality, he repays her by trying to exploit Sylvia's obvious love for him and Mrs. Tilley's equal. In many ways, “A White Heron” is a tale with mythological overtones. A youngwoman trying to live in reclusive ethical superiority is exposed to temptation from the outside world. The agent of deception uses her growing interest in the opposite sex to hypnotize her into lying to the natural world in which she resides. While her "woman's soul", which was "cozy", transformed into "vaguely amazed" thanks to the help of the young hunter, she also gained a new vision of herself and the arena. of nature. Her morning journey, if you wish to lead her through a risky swamp, and her subsequent climb up a pine tree, will check and teach her. As she attempts to negotiate the "movement" from grass to forest, she embarks on a "big undertaking" that is both intimidating and rewarding. From the top of the tree, she will see “the immense and impressive world” beyond the protection of the field. Unfortunately for the hunter, he also sees a white heron and one of its friends. The battle between the two worlds and the parallel between the herons and their situation are simply obvious to Sylvia, "the saddest but the wisest": the simplest, in step with the destruction of any other "domestic" state of affairs , can be her happiness by helping the object of her. the craze is over, which can be of very good size. Jewett writes as an epilogue: “Could birds have been better friends than their hunters? At the end of "A White Heron", the unconventional protagonist, Sylvia, must choose whether to help the hunter find and kill a charming and rare white heron, or whether to keep the heron covered in not disclosing the area of ​​its nest. In this case, Sylvia's choice to protect nature (using the location of the heron's mystery) or profit from its consumption (by revealing the heron's nest and accepting the hunter's bribe) is also a reflection of his perspectives. to the industry. Ultimately, Sylvia chooses to keep this mystery of the heron's nest, which is Jewett's way of suggesting that nature should be favored over industrialization. For Jewett, the conflict between nature and business is linked to a conflict between the city and the United States, and Sylvia's memories moving from the industrial town where she grew up to the geographic residence of her aunt, Mrs. Tilley , underline the importance of nature. Jewett points out that Sylvia "tried to grow up in a crowded manufacturing town for 8 years", but there she "never became alive". “After seeing the beauty of her grandmother’s farm for the first time, Sylvia mentioned that she “would never want to go home.” Far from the debilitating effects of her industrialized country, Sylvia seems to come back alive. Instead of being afraid of the world, she began to eagerly explore it, Jewett remarks that "since the world became real, there has never been the kind of child to wander around outside!" » She learns in detail about the landscape, tames wild creatures and is happy to appear after her grandmother's stubborn cow. For Sylvia, the nation-state is a more suitable environment, because nature makes her confident and happy, at the same time as the city makes her boring and scary. Although Sylvia's inner transformation demonstrates that she undoubtedly prefers nature to high-tech industrialism, she continues to be drawn to the Hunter (whom Jewett sincerely identifies with the city and the corporation). With its advanced stats and state-of-the-art system, the Hunter embodies an intrusive urban impact. He tells Sylvia several things she hadn't noticed about the birds, and he gives her a knife and a gun, which might be unusual in Sylvia's American life. He is also particularly identified with industry because his cause — to take a chicken and produce it.