Michelle Romero
Eng 48b
Dr. Scott Lankford
A White Heron
"Everybody said that it was a good change for a little maid who had tried to grow for eight years in a crowded manufacturing town, but, as for Sylvia herself, it seemed as if she never had been alive at all before she came to live at the farm. She thought often with wistful compassion of a wretched geranium that belonged to a town neighbor."
This passage describes Sylvia's growth after moving out to the farm, away from the busy manufacturing city full of inhabitants. It is as though Sylvia really blossoms when she is given the freedom to roam about and explore nature and her self without limitations. Her neighbor on the other hand, is left with a wretched geranium.
The flower is symbolic of life, beauty, and woman sexuality. While Sylvia has been able to grow and be fulfilled in the quiet peace of the farm, the loud, crowed city seems to wither away the flower of a neighbor she knew.
This symbolism may be left in shallow waters where Jewett suggests that cities are oppressing and do not allow for personal growth, so it is better to live in the quiet of a farm, OR.....
It may really be what the cities represent as an industry which is so oppressing. In the city, there is a society. There is infrastructure, not just physical, but also societal. There are rules and norms which women especially are expected to follow. In this case, Jewett may be revealing a deeper oppression of the free and independent child within each woman and the need for that to be preserved for true personal fulfillment. She suggests, in other passages as well, that this sort of fulfillment is not possible in the crowed, industrial cities; there is no place for women to be their own person.
A later passage supports this deeper symbolic meaning when Sylvia moves on to another tree where she will discover the white heron and have to make a decision: "There, when she made the dangerous pass from one tree to the other, the great enterprise would really begin."
Again, she tells the reader that the decision or possibly, the passing from a child in to a woman, is dangerous. Dangerous because it is a mystery? Dangerous because she will not have her own voice anymore? We do not know. What we do know is that in that decision or that crossing over, the "enterprise" begins. The "enterprise" of course is another reference to industry, structure, rules, and "progress."
There are different depths of meanings in these passages, but Jewett is insightfully recognizing the changes occurring around her AND their consequences in different arenas. This is what makes her a great local color writer, but also on a deeper level, and insightful literary figure of her time.
Friday, March 2, 2007
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Journal 15: Sarah Orne Jewett
Michelle Romero
Eng 48b
Dr. Scott Lankford
"A White Heron"
"'Speak up and tell me what your name is, and whether you think I can spend the night at your house, and go out gunning early in the morning.' Sylvia was more alarmed than before. Would not her grandmother consider her much to blame? It did not seem to be her fault, and she hung her head as if the stem of it were broken, but managed to answer 'Sylvy' with much effort when her companion again asked her name."
This is a dialogue between Sylvia and our mystery man who appears out of no where while she is walking home. Sylvia at first hides from the man but it is too late, he has already seen her.
Here, Jewett seems to be implying that once a man has his sights on a girl/woman, she is in serious trouble. To go so far as to hide and without giving any real explanation as to why she would be afraid of this man seems a little odd. The image of the gun in this scene is symbolic of sort of this American male dominance and need to control his environment, even if he has to kill it apparently.
This dominant male image is clarified when he basically invites himself to spend the night at her house and later, demands food. Also, the fact that he commands her to "speak," makes him seem like he thinks she is just a "bitch" or a dog. Does she really need him to tell her to speak? If she wanted to talk to him, she could on her own free will, could she not? I don't know many people who would pass by someone they didn't know at all and say "Speak."
In addition, the later image of his hunting birds to stuff them and put them on display mirrors the historical idea of women being proper women, and a man choosing her for her etiquette, upbringing, and social status. Basically, to put her on show so that all could see what a lovely wife he has and he could feel like he has achieved or conquered something.
Therefore, there is a parallel in this story between the girl and the birds, or in particular, the white heron. The two are free beings, until a man has captured them. Perhaps this is why Sylvia hides. Perhaps this is why she prefers the farm where acquaintances are few. Her only chance to be free is to not be seen.
She hangs her head (knowing the implications of allowing this man in to her life), as if the stem were broken. This is particulary important because it again emphasizes Jewett's comparison of a woman to nature. You can think of Sylvia as a flower, whose stem has just been broken. (see blog on the wretched geranium for more detail on my flower analysis). And all because this man saw her! Jewett gives a lot of power to this guy. Than speaks loudly for itself.
Eng 48b
Dr. Scott Lankford
"A White Heron"
"'Speak up and tell me what your name is, and whether you think I can spend the night at your house, and go out gunning early in the morning.' Sylvia was more alarmed than before. Would not her grandmother consider her much to blame? It did not seem to be her fault, and she hung her head as if the stem of it were broken, but managed to answer 'Sylvy' with much effort when her companion again asked her name."
This is a dialogue between Sylvia and our mystery man who appears out of no where while she is walking home. Sylvia at first hides from the man but it is too late, he has already seen her.
Here, Jewett seems to be implying that once a man has his sights on a girl/woman, she is in serious trouble. To go so far as to hide and without giving any real explanation as to why she would be afraid of this man seems a little odd. The image of the gun in this scene is symbolic of sort of this American male dominance and need to control his environment, even if he has to kill it apparently.
This dominant male image is clarified when he basically invites himself to spend the night at her house and later, demands food. Also, the fact that he commands her to "speak," makes him seem like he thinks she is just a "bitch" or a dog. Does she really need him to tell her to speak? If she wanted to talk to him, she could on her own free will, could she not? I don't know many people who would pass by someone they didn't know at all and say "Speak."
In addition, the later image of his hunting birds to stuff them and put them on display mirrors the historical idea of women being proper women, and a man choosing her for her etiquette, upbringing, and social status. Basically, to put her on show so that all could see what a lovely wife he has and he could feel like he has achieved or conquered something.
Therefore, there is a parallel in this story between the girl and the birds, or in particular, the white heron. The two are free beings, until a man has captured them. Perhaps this is why Sylvia hides. Perhaps this is why she prefers the farm where acquaintances are few. Her only chance to be free is to not be seen.
She hangs her head (knowing the implications of allowing this man in to her life), as if the stem were broken. This is particulary important because it again emphasizes Jewett's comparison of a woman to nature. You can think of Sylvia as a flower, whose stem has just been broken. (see blog on the wretched geranium for more detail on my flower analysis). And all because this man saw her! Jewett gives a lot of power to this guy. Than speaks loudly for itself.
Journal 14: Sarah Orne Jewett
Michelle Romero
Eng. 48b
Dr. Scott Lankford
"A White Heron"
"The woods were already filled with shadows one June evening, just before eight o' clock, though a bright sunset still glimmered faintly among the trunks of the trees."
This opening line sets the scene for the story. The first thing that caught my attention was Jewett's decision to say it was a June evening. This just doesn't fit the poetic flow and rhythm. But, that I think is the point. While Jewett is very descriptive and uses poetic metaphors, she also expresses a shift away from the ordinary. An ordinary, yet rhythmically in tune sentence would have said "The woods were already filled with shadows one July evening just before eight o'clock..." When the word June is spoken, the reader's lips are pursed together to create a different tone, one which stops you in your tracks.
Jewett also highlights events which typically go unnoticed. For example, she writes, "There was a stirring in the great boughs overhead. They were full of little birds and beasts that seemed to be wide awake, and going about their world, or else saying good-night to each other in sleepy twitters." In these lines, Jewett expresses her artistic style which emphasizes nature and the beautiful things in nature which exist. She does not color the setting by writing fluffy phrases; she embraces it as it is. In this particular passage, she gives ever greater life to the little birds by suggesting they may even be chirping "good-night" to each other.
This is part of Jewett's local colorist type writing. She is aware of the environment and gives her human audience insight as to its role in their lives. Today, in the bay area, I don't know how many actually even hear the quiet chirping of the birds, but surely we don't stop to think what they might be saying.
Jewett has a calm way of stopping and smelling the roses in her stories.
Eng. 48b
Dr. Scott Lankford
"A White Heron"
"The woods were already filled with shadows one June evening, just before eight o' clock, though a bright sunset still glimmered faintly among the trunks of the trees."
This opening line sets the scene for the story. The first thing that caught my attention was Jewett's decision to say it was a June evening. This just doesn't fit the poetic flow and rhythm. But, that I think is the point. While Jewett is very descriptive and uses poetic metaphors, she also expresses a shift away from the ordinary. An ordinary, yet rhythmically in tune sentence would have said "The woods were already filled with shadows one July evening just before eight o'clock..." When the word June is spoken, the reader's lips are pursed together to create a different tone, one which stops you in your tracks.
Jewett also highlights events which typically go unnoticed. For example, she writes, "There was a stirring in the great boughs overhead. They were full of little birds and beasts that seemed to be wide awake, and going about their world, or else saying good-night to each other in sleepy twitters." In these lines, Jewett expresses her artistic style which emphasizes nature and the beautiful things in nature which exist. She does not color the setting by writing fluffy phrases; she embraces it as it is. In this particular passage, she gives ever greater life to the little birds by suggesting they may even be chirping "good-night" to each other.
This is part of Jewett's local colorist type writing. She is aware of the environment and gives her human audience insight as to its role in their lives. Today, in the bay area, I don't know how many actually even hear the quiet chirping of the birds, but surely we don't stop to think what they might be saying.
Jewett has a calm way of stopping and smelling the roses in her stories.
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