A White Heron Essay Example for Free

A White Heron Essay A White Heron is a short story about a city girl who came to live with her grandmother in the country. She met a young ornithologist hunter looking for a rare white heron he heard that was seen in the area and to stuff it for his collection. She discovers her infatuation for country life and her love and values for the animals that are living there. She became part of nature and loved it. Sylvia is so overcome by nature’s beauty. When she went home, she could not tell of what she found. She knew she would be awarded with money for telling of the bird’s location, but she determined that it was more important to save the bird’s life. Sylvia was overwhelmed with the fact that it was more than a beautiful bird, she realized it had every right to continue to live in its own innocent world. The story gives us better understanding about the relationship among men, women, and nature. We can see women’s involvement with nature, men’s domination over women and nature, and the return of women’s unity with nature. The relation between men and nature was seen as men dominate nature because men saw nature as a supply for free enterprise, while the relation between women and nature was seen as women were closer to nature than men. Women and nature were valuable companions. And because nature was dominated by men, women and nature help each other and were enlightened from men’s domination. Women understand how to live harmoniously with the world. It was seen in the beginning of the story that Sylvia lives cordially with the nature near her even if she is new to the community in the countryside. Before being disrupted by men, women have good relationship with nature. The story represents the relation between women and nature, which is very close to each other and are seen as close friends. Even though Sylvia and nature are harmonious, they do not feel they are forced to be united. Nature gives her a warm welcome to be an important part of it. It is also seen that the animal is eager to be Sylvia’s friend and presents her a tour in the woods. The bird takes care of the girl with compassion because the bird considers her as a valued companion. This shows that nature welcomes Sylvia as a member of the countryside. This short story recommends that when women stay close to nature, women can greatly understand nature through their senses. In the story, Sylvia takes in nature when she is on her way home. Sylvia’s admiration of nature reveals that Sylvia can deeply understand and grasp nature through seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching. This short story totally expresses how women are a valuable friend of nature. It shows the importance of being friends. Without Sylvia, the old cow would be an ordinary cow in the farm. The story articulates that Sylvia treats the cow very well. Nature helps Sylvia at first by being her friend in the woodlands because she’s new in the countryside and a life in her grandmother’s isolated house, the girl doesn’t have any friends. The relation of women and nature, without men’s interruption, is absolutely compatible. Sylvia and her grandmother live contentedly in the countryside because they have great admiration and value for nature. The women in the story have good understandings of nature and nature can be good companions without men’s interference. In the beginning of the story, Sylvia and her grandmother symbolize women who live in harmony with nature. But when the young man arrives at the countryside, both of them become gradually influenced by him. Even though Sylvia thinks that the young man is not as friendly as her old cow, she shows warm hospitality to him. It is seen when he asks her for accommodation and some food and Sylvia eventually takes the young man to her grandmother’s home. While at her house, the young man exhibits men’s approach towards women and he positions himself higher than women. His experiences from the city shape his views and lead him to offend the countryside. He believes that he is from a better group of people because â€Å"The young man had known the horrors of its most primitive housekeeping, and the dreary squalor of that level of society which does not rebel at the companionship of hens (14). † Opposite to his expectation, he found that Sylvia’s house very clean and comfortable. In the story, the view toward natural science is demonstrated in a different way through the young man and Sylvia. Sylvia’s attention and the young man’s curiosity in birds are also different. The girl sees the birds as her friends and becomes their caretaker. Though the young man was influenced by the patriarch and industrialization, he doesn’t perceive the close relation between women and nature. He tells the real purpose of his travel as he tracks a white heron flying three miles away from Sylvia’s house. Sylvia and the white heron are influenced and exploited by the young man as the girl becomes his worker by helping him look for the white heron. The bird is stimulated like it is one type of the resources which provide for the growth of capitalism. Because of temptation, Sylvia came to a decision to go into the woods alone to find the white heron’s nesting ground. Her voyage into the woods demonstrates that Sylvia is captivated by the young man’s charm and money. The trip exemplify that women are dominated by men to take advantage of nature. As Sylvia becomes the young mans worker, her knowledge and bravery are oppressed to provide the young man’s demand. Although Sylvia is familiar with the woods, she abandons her unity with nature. It is obvious that Sylvia’s sensitivity about wild creatures changed and when she started to climb the tree top, she is not unified with nature. The girl destroys nests as she climbs and her attitude to nature changed. Instead of being a caretaker of animals, the girl is illustrated as a housebreaker (31). Nature and Sylvia become divided from each other. As Sylvia go up to the top of the tree, she absorbs a natural feeling again as nature tend to bring her awareness back. The white heron makes his entrance almost at the end of the story. This is to remind her that the bird is still her good friend. Sylvia has realized pain and fatigue of being inferior to the young man. She also recognized that nature is her true friend and not the young man. She experienced the world from a different point of view as: Yes, there was the sea with the dawning sun making a golden dazzle over it, and toward that glorious east flew two hawks with slow-moving pinions. How low they looked in the air from that height when one had only seen them before far up, and dark against the blue sky. Their gray feathers were as soft as moths; they seemed only a little way from the tree, and Sylvia felt as if she too could go flying away among the clouds. Westward, the woodlands and farms reached miles and miles into the distance; here and there were church steeples, and white villages, truly it was a vast and awesome world (34). It stated how she was impressed by nature and her attraction with the young man gradually lessens. These show that even though the relation of women and nature is interrupted by men, the relation can be easily brought back together because women are close to nature. In the end, the story suggests that women will be powerful when they work in assistance with nature. Sylvia makes a decision not to tell the young man about the white heron making them free from exploitation of the young man. People cannot sit around expecting to achieve a goal. They have to follow and do something in order to achieve it. The story relates to sustainability as Sylvia managed to overcome the influence of the young man with the help of nature. Sylvia starts to understand what it means to have maturity and to overcome her self-centeredness. Her experience in putting the bird first before taking money shows how Sylvia has matured. The Power of nature bears out to be much greater for her tough most people would have told the location of the bird and ran away with the money. Her relationship with nature was much stronger than any human relations she had, and she knows she gain more satisfaction from nature than from money. She saved not just the bird, but also herself. It relates to conservation of the environment so much. It made us realize how important the role of nature is for all of us. We take nature for granted. We experience calamities because of our own doings to nature. We should learn to appreciate the things nature gives us. It is not that hard to conserve our environment even if it is our source of livelihood. We should remember that it is also the source of our lives. The forest where Sylvia lives is second-growth forest, where the land was highest, great pine-tree stood, the last of its generation (28). And she finds knowledge in: Whether it was left for a boundary mark, or for what reason, no one could say; the woodchoppers who had felled its mates were dead and gone long ago (28). The rare old tree had emphasized the value of preserving the land. Without the help of nature, how do you think we could ever survive? So, the short story tells us how important it is to conserve our environment for it will benefit us so much for so many centuries to come. The conservation of animals is also simple like with the conservation of the environment. There are so many animals now that we can’t appreciate their beauty because of extinction and there are so many animals that are endangered of becoming extinct. We should appreciate their beauty and respect their right to live as part of nature. They belong to the open wide spaces of nature and not as a stuffed animal that hangs in our walls or as fur coats people wear. Works Cited Jewett, Sarah Orne. (1886). A White Heron Houghton-Mifflin http://andromeda. rutgers. edu/~ehrlich/224/w_heron. htm