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A White Heron, by Sarah Jewett is a story of a girl turned womans spirit being set free. Sylvia, a young girl who was raised in a crowded manufacturing town seems to come alive with the move to the farm to live with her grandmother. The narrator shows her innate feministic side when she describes the hunters whistle as determined and somewhat aggressive, unlike a friendly birds whistle. The narrator first refers to this man as as the enemy and states that the young girl dare not to look boldly at the man. This is representative of how repressed women felt and were at that time. Another example of this was the grandmothers remark about her son being able to wander off to explore the world. She expresses that if she could have, she would have done it too. But of course women have their roles and places in society and that social order is not to be messed with. The hunter offers Sylvia $10 in exchange for locating his next hunting prize, the white heron. She wonders what treasures $10 would bring her. The next day she went with him to hunt for the birds, although she cant understand why her new found friend would kill the very thing he proclaims to love and admires so much. The author states,
Sylvia would have liked him vastly better without his gun; she could not understand why he killed the very birds he seemed to likes so much. But as the day waned, Sylvia still watched the young man with loving admiration. She had never seen anybody so charming and delightful; the womans heart, asleep in the child, was vaguely thrilled by a dream of love.
At this moment Slyvia has the need and desire to be loved by this man and makes the decision to help him find the white heron. If she chooses to help this young hunter win his prize then she will be going along with societys norms for a young lady, and lose her own identiy. In order to locate this bird she has to climb the tallest tree around, a feat in itself. The climb up the massive tree was decidedly the turning point for Sylvia. She became so close to nature and felt its existence all around. When she finally saw the white heron, something inside changed. She saw herself in the white heron and knew that if she divulged the white herons location, she would not only be helping to the destruction of the birds spirit but her own as well. This power she now has is something that will comfort her because now she is alone; alone with nature. And as one must have an identity to survive in nature, the narrator must save own identity in order to survive.
The most important task a reader has in reading Sarah Orne Jewetts A White Heron is that of recognizing and deciphering its sexual, especially phallic, symbology. Jewett uses phallic symbols to demonstrate the creative and destructive potential embodied in the phallus. Jewett, however creates an experience in her story wherein a woman is able to discover and experience her sexuality without the violent penetrative act of intercourse, and the ecstasy of creation without the horrible pain of childbirth. The most appropriate place to begin such an analysis is with the most apparent symbols the tall young man, who carried a gun over his shoulder, and the great pine tree. It is essential to realize that although these images are both symbolic of phallic potency (real or perceived), they represent the dichotomy which exists within phallic symbology.
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The tall young man is symbolic of limited perspective, temporality, and death. He can see the women, symbolized by the birds he hunts, as nothing more than trophies to be stuffed and preserved. The hunter represents the fulfillment of temporal needs by his ability to offer many wished-for treasures. Finally, the young hunter carries the power of death over women in the form of his gun. The gun is symbolic of the hunters penis (gun is a modern slang term for a penis) and it is not surprising that Sylvia would have liked him vastly better without [it].
The great pine tree represents the exact opposite in terms of the potential of the phallus; it symbolizes unlimited perspective, spirituality, and life. The unlimited perspective of the tree is the reason why Sylvia goes to it in the first place. From the top of the tree she can see the ocean, symbolic of fertility; from the top of the tree she can discover the nest/home of her own innocent sexuality, the white heron. The spirituality Sylvia discovers comes as her determined spark of human spirit reaches the orgasmic height of the tree climbing experience. She views the tree as a godlike entity that is omnipotent, like a great main-mast to the voyaging earth, and omnibenevolent; The old pine must have loved his new dependent. Life is easily recognizable in the symbolic pine. The evergreen has long been a symbol of eternal life (which is why we use it as a Christmas tree). The tree is also alive with numerous small birds and animals. Although the great pine does not symbolize religion, Sylvia must use religion, symbolized by the white oak, to place herself in the branches of the great pine.
Sylvia is a prepubescent woman who is faced with the awakening of her sexuality. Her initial response to the young hunter is that she is horror-stricken. Although Sylvia has encountered the phallus previously, in her city home (the great red-faced boy . . . used to chase and frighten her), this encounter is vastly different due to the fact that she is older and curious about discovering her sexuality. Sylvia, after the initial shock of meeting the hunter is over, adopts the attitude which is common in young girls who are on the verge of discovering their sexuality; she is coy and seemingly disinterested in the young man. It is only when he offers temporal favors, ten dollars that Sylvia becomes wildly interested in what this young stranger is and what it is he is searching for.
As Sylvia gradually immerses herself in the comfort of the hunter she discovers that he is seemingly kind and sympathetic. This is a ruse that many young men employ to get what they are after, and the young hunter is after birds/women, specifically the purity of Sylvias innocence, her virginity, her white heron. To achieve this task he heinously employs Sylvia in the project of discovering her sexuality as an objectified goal which he supposes he has a right to participate in. As they walk in the woods their interaction is analogous to the actions of courting, flirting, and even hints of foreplay. . . . the womans heart, asleep in the child, was vaguely thrilled by a dream of love. Some premonition of that great power stirred and swayed these young foresters who traversed the solemn woodlands with soft-footed silent care. They stopped to listen to a birds song; they pressed forward again eagerly, parting the branches . . . Sylvia grieved because the longed for white heron was elusive.
To draw from the teachings of Jean Paul Sartre, Sylvias quest for the white heron, her quest for her sexuality, is one of being-in-itself. The hunter, on the other hand, seeks out the white heron of Sylvias sexuality as an object, a being-for-itself, and in this regard he is acting in bad faith.
Only when Sylvia makes it a private quest is she able to find her white heron. Her journey in the night to climb the great pine is an act of solitary ambition. Although Sylvia sets out initially to discover her white heron for presentation to the hunter, she realizes that her sexual purity is a greater possession than the ten dollars which the hunter has offered her for it. Sylvias climb to the top of the pine has all the elements of a sexual encounter. The phallic pine tree becomes engorged and seems to Sylvia to [lengthen] itself out as she went up. The intercourse with the tree involves the discomfort typical of most initial sexual encounters; the sharp dry twigs caught and held her and scratched her. The heightening sensation of the experience is evident as Sylvia ascends higher and higher upward. When the climax, the orgasm is reached, Sylvia stands trembling, tired, but wholly triumphant, high in the tree-top.
Sylvia is privileged to have an experience which few women, if any, are able to have. Not only does Sylvia have her first sexual experience without the violence of penetrative sex, but she is able to achieve an orgasm with her first sexual encounter. She knows his secret now . . . Sylvia, well satisfied, makes her perilous way down. Once Sylvia has obtained the knowledge of the place of the white heron, she is faced with the dilemma of whether to share such knowledge with the hunter. Sylvia decides that she cannot tell the herons secret and give its life away. At this point the reader should note that the experience of the orgasm is not a result of an auto-erotic stimulation. If Jewett wanted to portray the experience of masturbation, surely she would have had Sylvia slaughter the bird with her own hand and present it to the hunter; this would be the only way to maintain the allegorical motif which Jewett constructed so carefully.
Unfortunately, in the end, Sylvia reflects on her choice and wonders if it was the correct one. Sylvia paid the price of security for the lonely solace of making what her heart felt was the correct choice. Although Sylvia could have served and followed and loved him, it would only have been in the same way as a dog loves. The painful emotions of which surface at the end of Jewetts story, the painful rationalization and questioning, make it obvious that being placed in a position, as many women are, of sacrificing self for security is an unequitable product of the male hierarchy which is found in all aspects of phallic symbology, temporal or spiritual.
THE FOREIGNER
Each of these writers depicts magic differently. Their degree of acceptance for these unorthodox events in realistic fiction reflects their willingness to bend the rules of traditional fiction. Sarah Orne Jewetts The Foreigner is a story which features some very interesting magic elements that place her firmly outside of straightforward fiction with this story. Her characters, Mrs. Todd and Mrs. Tolland, are incredible images of witchiness in the midst of Protestant propriety, and in this short story we find a definite connection through them to the supernatural. The story is a story within a story, where Mrs. Todd and her guest, the narrator, after settling in for a rough, stormy night propose a ghost story. We expect something deliciously spooky since Jewett keeps reminding us about threatening great rollers of the sea,tidal waves, sea-going disasters, (157-8) but we eventually find that to Mrs. Todd this ghost story is truth. Mrs. Todd, the picture of an oracular Fate, settles into her rocking chair, and clicking her knitting needles as the old cat pushed open the unlatched door and came straight toward her mistress lap(15) relates her story. The cat reminds us of the witchs familiar, an animal which focuses a witchs powers and is often represented by a cat. Indeed, this cat seems one with Mrs. Todd-- the narrator never mentions either of the two except in connection with the other throughout this story. We are told, amidst long pauses in which Mrs. Todd (and her cat) gaze into the fire, the story of Mrs. Captain Tolland. Mrs. Todd has forgotten her maiden name; if [she] ever heard it. . .twould mean nothing to me (161). The story, then, is about a woman who is entirely in the domain of a patriarchal world-- the only name known is the name her husband gave her, but she is shown as a representative of feminine magic. This woman was a foreigner (16) and she is a musician who unfortunately alienates herself from the community of women in her new home with a decidedly un-orthodox incident in the church, right in the meetin house vestry (166). Invited to a social, she begins to sing, caught up a tin plate. . . an she begun to drum on it. . . like one o them tambourines. . .faster and faster...danc[ing] a pretty little dance between the verses (167). The women who are present are caught in the spell of Mrs. Captain Tollands music, but next day there was an awful scandal and though the women are reminded by Mrs. Todd of Davids dancin before the Lord (167) they will not be consoled. These women unconsciously understand the impact of Mrs. Tollands witchy behavior on their community. Mrs. Tolland, the next time she comes to church, acts like a cat in a strange garret and stalks out, just in the beginning of the long prayer(167) with no explanation of her actions. Mrs. Tolland, then, is seen as a woman who disrespects orthodoxy and religion, and indeed, her actions would have gotten her burned as a witch in the not-too-distant past. We hear about her knowledge of herbs and charms, and that she taught. . .a sight o things about herbs [Mrs. Todd] never knew before nor since. (170) She is the picture of womans spells and rituals. When Mrs. Todd interrupts Mrs. Tollands fête day, a day when a dinner is held in honor of some sort of religious ritual, to tell her of her husbands death, she does not take the news well and she begins to die. On her death bed, however, we realize that she is not just a misunderstood woman but someone truly connected to magical forces. Her mother comes to retrieve her daughter as a ghost that scares Mrs. Todd as somethin that made poor human natur quail (186). We have been given, by Mrs. Todd and Jewett, a very straightforward depiction of a supernatural event. Mrs. Todd believes that this event is true, and Jewetts representation of this story does not judge her characters belief as unrealistic or silly. Jewett, like Magic Realists, uses the elements of matriarchal religion and the supernatural to frame her story, thus rejecting a tradition of straightforward male storytelling in much of the same way that Magic Realists have done.
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