The Innocence of a Child: Point of View in “A White Heron”

The Effect of Point of View in Literature
How does point of view determine a story’s effect? “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett is told in the third person narration style, but the point of view that the narrator adopts is Sylvia’s—the little girl who feels connected with nature and enjoys the beauty, peace and harmony that she experiences in the outdoors. Her perspective allows the author to depict the ornithologist as a kind of barbaric hunter who is out to destroy nature so that he can cruelly and coldly study it in his lab. To the girl, he is “the enemy” (Jewett)—the hunter who is out to catch the white heron and make of it a prize. He offers money to Sylvia and her grandmother if the girl will just confess where she saw the bird so that he can snatch it from the wild. Sylvia, too loyal to nature, and too fond of the animals and all the life of the outdoors refuses to divulge the secret—but the hunter being a hunter is sure to find it out. The story concludes with the narrator appealing to the reader to bring some joy to the girl, who is made sad in keeping her secret, denying her grandmother the promised money and losing the friendship of the ornithologist. The reader is made to sympathize with the girl because the narrator describes the action from her perspective so vividly. However, had the narrator told the story from the young man’s perspective or from the grandmother’s perspective, it would have been a very different story indeed: the reader might have been compelled to feel sympathy for the grandmother or feel the disappointment of the young man who sought his prized bird.
Point of view is important when telling a story, as Judith Oster points out in her essay on perspective in the classroom. In other words, how people look at things, the orientation from which they are situated, will determine what they see, how they think about what they are seeing, and the information that they are able to process about the object of sight. In literature, point of view serves as a kind of frame that brings the characters and plot into focus: it grants a single perspective (usually—unless it is a story that uses multiple points of view, like Rashomon, to convey a more complete picture of events). A writer will use point of view to help manipulate the reader’s experience and draw attention to details that might not be obvious or noticed were the perspective or point of view different. For instance, in “A White Heron,” the action is told mainly from Sylvia’s perspective. As a child, her point of view is primarily focused on goodness, the beauty and wonder of nature, and a fondness for the birds, whom she considers her friends. At the end of the story, when she is asked to choose between the happiness of her human friends and the happiness of her own heart in communing with the white heron she is torn as only a little child can be. She does not want to give up the bird to the hunter for money, but at the same time she does not want to hurt his feelings or make her grandmother sad. Were the story told from a separate point of view—say, from the grandmother’s or from the young ornithologist’s, the details provided by the author would surely focus on other items—elements that only they would notice.
In other words, the grandmother’s presence in the story opens up a unique perspective that could be explored had the author decided to use her point of view to give the impressions of an old person on the events that unfold. The story of the white heron would be different because it would include details that only the grandmother would feel or think or know about. The story would be told from the perspective of age and worry. The grandmother has to look after Sylvia and she has very little money to do it. Her concerns are not for beauty or innocence or the birds of the wild. These things she might have noticed much earlier in her youth, but for her now they are relatively meaningless and uninteresting. A dead white heron that the hunter is willing to pay for is much more valuable to her than a live white one that is free (whereabouts unknown) that a hunter is not willing to pay. Finances concern her. Keeping a roof over her and her child’s head concerns her. The liberty of the white heron does not concern her because she is not a little girl in love with nature. She is an old woman who has undoubtedly experienced all that love can offer in this life—and, now, old and alone with the responsibility of caring for this child weighing on her, she would gladly tell the whereabouts of the white heron if only she knew where it was. Had the author included this point of view in the story, the reader would no doubt feel much more conflicted about where to place one’s sympathies. But Jewett is not concerned with the grandmother’s point of view. She wants to convey what it is like to be a child and to be faced with such a terrible decision as this: to choose one’s loyalties in such an awful manner—for money (which would make the grandmother happy, but which would rob the girl of her innocence, which she longs to cling to and which can only be maintained if she refuses to give up the bird).
On the other hand, had the point of view of the young man been brought into the story, the author could have provided a masculine perspective to offset the points of view of the two female characters. The young man is neither interested in money (he plainly has enough of it if he can afford to pay others for information about where a bird was last seen) nor in a living, thriving nature. He is a collector of beautiful specimens. He enjoys the thrill of the hunt. He wants to be successful in his mission, and he is willing to do what it takes to satisfy himself. At the same time, he is not unkind: Jewett notes that he has “kind, appealing eyes” and is described as “so well worth making happy” (Jewett). The girl is almost made to fall in love with him as the author describes his appearance and demeanor—and indeed the author suggests that this is even the case because though Sylvia refuses to tell the secret of where she saw the bird she is still made sad because she has not made the young man happy. It would be worth knowing what is going on in the young man’s head while he is looking at Sylvia, calmly and politely waiting for her to tell her secret. But the author does not give this point of view and the reader is left to imagine what it might have been.
However, had the author chosen to supply the points of view of either the young man or the grandmother it would have complicated the narrative and made it more complex for the reader. By focusing only on the young girl’s point of view, the author is able to create a single desired effect on the reader: the effect of sympathy for the plight of a young girl torn between the world of innocence and the world of experience. On the one hand, she wants to cling to the beautiful world of innocence and nature; on the other hand, there is the dim perception dawning upon her that the world of experience awaits her and in this world one must be willing to make sacrifices, even if it means sacrificing one’s own heart. This dim perception is capitalized upon by the author when she begs of the reader to send some “gifts and grace” (Jewett) to the lonely little country girl to lighten her mood, which has darkened considerably since the climactic conclusion of the story in which she keeps her secret, disappoints her grandmother and fails to make friends with the young man. By keeping the point of view simple, the author gives the story a singleness of purpose. She is out to create one, single, small dramatic effect that will stay with the reader. As Alan Hirvela and Diane Belcher show, multiple points of view allows for multiple voices to emerge, which can make a narrative richer and more meaningful but which can also make it more complex and less easy to absorb. The more complex a story, the more time one must spend with it in order to digest everything that is being directed at one. The simpler the story, the easier it is to absorb what is being told and to feel what the writer wants the reader to feel. Had Jewett focused instead on giving only the grandmother’s perspective or the young man’s point of view, the story would be different in that it would not be about a young girl’s love and struggle but rather about an old person’s worry or a young man’s ambition. It would add layers of complexity to the narrative but defeat the singleness of purpose evidently desired by the author.
In conclusion, the story “A White Heron” would be much different had Jewett told the story from the ornithologist’s or grandmother’s point of view. Point of view serves the purpose of framing a narrative: it gives the reader a lens through which life and events must be viewed. To see outside that frame or to see from a different lens situated from another point or frame of reference would give another take on the events but it would also complicate the picture substantially. The reader, like the girl, would be made to feel torn about where sympathies should be placed. Had Jewett included the grandmother’s perspective, the reader might feel obliged to have more sympathy for the old woman than for the innocent child—but this would have ruined the author’s primary intention, which was for the reader to identify with the child—to remember what it was like to be young and innocent, to care for beauty and the things of nature. Had Jewett included the point of view of the young hunter, the story would have had a colder tone, a more calculating and matter of fact tone, and the aim of the author would have been lost just the same. Point of view is helpful in communicating a tone, a picture, and a feeling—and how it is used will impact the reader and alter the reader’s perception and experience of the drama that unfolds in the story.
Works Cited
Hirvela, Alan, and Diane Belcher. "Coming back to voice: The multiple voices and identities of mature multilingual writers." Journal of Second Language Writing 10.1-2 (2001): 83-106.
Jewett, Sarah Orne. “A White Heron” http://www.public.coe.edu/~theller/soj/awh/heron.htm#gifts
Oster, Judith. "Seeing with different eyes: Another view of literature in the ESL class." TESOL Quarterly 23.1 (1989): 85-103.