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Tree Symbolism In The White Heron By Sarah Orne Jewett

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The White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett is about the journey of a girl, Sylvia, as she begins to develop. Throughout the story she beings to discover who she really is and connects with nature to decide where she finally fits in. There are many symbols within the White Heron, however, the tree illustrates qualities Sylvia learns about herself while also making her choose between her love of nature and the white heron or an admiration of a hunter and a monetary value. When Sylvia first decides that she is going to climb the tree to find the heron’s nest it serves as an earthly pursuit. She wonders “over and over again what the stranger will say to her, and what he will think when she tells him how to find his way straight to the herons nest” …show more content…

The fact that she chose to make this journey without the permission of her grandmother, and without the knowledge of the hunter, illustrates her evolution into an independent adult. First of all, even though she had “often laid her hand on the great rough trunk and looked up wistfully at those dark boughs” she had never once tried to climb the tree, but out of nowhere the hunter comes along looking for the white heron and she gets the gumption to do so (Jewett, pg. 135) Each branch she climbed past was another understanding that she developed. (Explain in more …show more content…

At this point, she regains her love for nature and identifies with the birds and their “gray feathers were as soft as moths…and Sylvia felt as though she too could go flying away among the clouds” (Jewett, pg. 136). This turning point for Sylvia, which allows her to finally see where the white heron perches and calls to its mate while he “plums his feathers for the new day,” is where she unconsciously decides she will never be able to tell the herons secret because, she too, feels as free as bird up in the tree looking over the “vast and awesome world” that has truly shown her who she is (Jewett, pg.

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