A_White_Heron

A White Heron The short story “A White Heron” written by Sarah Orne Jewett is the story of a young girl and how she becomes her own person in a time when women were supposed to be loyal like dogs toward men. The current views and the beginning of change in those views that some of society held towards the independence of women in the late 1800s can be seen through the character portrayals in “A White Heron.” In the opening of the story, Sylvia is alone in the woods driving home her cow when she runs into a young man. As the man approaches she refers to him as the enemy, and in a way he is. In the story Sylvia, her grandmother, and even the female cow are living a life that is free of males, yet happy. Suddenly, in comes this hunter to throw off the balance of the independent and female dominant life Sylvia knows. When Sylvia and the hunter return to Sylvia’s grandmother, Mrs. Tilley’s house Sylvia believed Mrs. Tilley had misunderstood the situation and made a mistake in allowing him to stay. The story also showed change when it mentioned the awakening of Mrs. Tilley’s “long story, women, sylvia, men, hunter, mrs, time, life, character, birds, tilley, prize, dead, young, white, way, views, tilley’s, rather, part, ownership, man, love, heron, grandmother, free, female, expected, display, cow, considered, companionship, comes, change, yet