Social class and attitude in Sarah Orne Jewett's "A White Heron"

Women's Roles 1865-1912

Social Class and Women's Roles in a White Heron

Literature is a reflection of the society in which it is produced. By examining the themes, attitudes and characters of period writing, one can begin to develop an understanding of that society. A White Heron, by Sarah Orne Jewett gives the reader a glimpse into social class divisions that existed between urbanites and rural people of the time. She also uses the narrative to draw the distinction between differences in attitude between these two groups. Jewett uses comparison and contrast to examine the differences in attitude between city dwellers and country dwellers that go beyond differences in their economic situation. The following will use a White Heron, by Sarah Jewett to examine the differences in social class, and attitude between urbanites and rural dwellers during the romantic period.

Differences in Social Class

Through an examination of Sarah Orne Jewett's a white Heron, we can explore the oppression of the female spirit through the thoughts and actions of Sylvy. Like, many romantic writers, Jewett uses symbolism in imagery to relay the underlying theme of the piece. The detailed imagery of the countryside invokes a feeling of peace. Jewett briefly contrasts the peacefulness of the wilderness to the bustle of the city that Sylvy had left. It is clear that Sylvy prefers the peacefulness of the countryside to the city life that she once knew. Through the eyes of the hunter, we find that this is only a matter of opinion, as he mentions the "primitive housekeeping," and "dreary squalor" of country people.

Hidden within the text is a hint of the social class structure of the time. The hunter is obviously wealthy beyond the dreams of Sylvy and her grandmother. Sylvy herself reflects on how impossible it is to dream of having $10. It is so overwhelming that she could not possibly decide how to spend it all. It seemed to her to be a very large sum of money. The hunter is on vacation and obviously can afford to travel for leisure. Ten dollars was a small amount of money for the traveler.

The entire piece contrasts the class differences between urbanites and rural dwellers of the time. However, aside from highlighting the economic hardships, a White Heron also examines the differences in attitude of the two social class extremes. Jewett uses comparison and contrast to distinguish between the close connections with nature that country people have, as opposed to the disrespect for life that city dwellers have. The grandmother speaks of a son who used to like to hunt birds as well.

The list of birds that he liked to hunt were restricted to game birds for meat. She states that she was never without meat, as long as he was around. She assumes that the hunter has the same purpose when he arrived, to hunt to provide himself meat. This was one of the reasons for her hospitality. She assumed that he was hungry and needed the meat. Sylvy did not understand when the hunter said that he killed the birds and stuffed them for display. This seemed to be wasteful and disrespectful of the life of the bird. Had the man revealed to the grandmother that he only wanted to hunt birds for trophy, she may not have been so hospitable.

Sylvy was leery of the gun-toting stranger and his strange ideas about hunting and killing birds for sport. As time progressed, Sylvy became interested in this stranger. However, the philosophical rift between them was apparent throughout the entire story. They are from two different worlds and as such, have two different worldviews. This was apparent through the contrasts brought out by the difference between hunting for sustenance and hunting for pleasure.

Question of Moral Values

The stranger assumes that Sylvy and her grandmother will be so poor and desperate that they will show him the prized white heron if he only offers them enough money. He further assumes that Sylvy is of lower education and will not understand what a white heron looks like. He treats them like simpletons who will be as easy prey as the birds that he catches. He overestimates his ability to manipulate them with money.

At first Sylva grieves because the white heron is an elusive bird, rarely seen, and she doubts that she will be able to find it and receive the monetary reward. However, Sylvy undergoes a fundamental change as she climbs the tree. Climbing up the tree is a metaphor for several concepts that involve "climbing up." Sylvy is growing up and learning to place her own morals and respect for nature above the lure of money.

Sylvy climbs the tree, first out of obedience to the man, and for the lure that his money holds. However, as she climbs up the tree, she faces many personal challenges and must overcome many fears. She gains a sense of independence and self-determination. For once she makes a decision for herself and not out of social duty. When Sylvy climbed the tree, she was breaking free of the social chains that bound women and children of the time.

When Sylvy overcome her limitations and experienced the closeness of the Heron, she felt as if she too could fly. This passage about climbing the tree gives the reader the impression that Jewett felt constrained by the strict social rules and class divisions of the time. Sylvy's climb into the tree was symbolic of breaking free of social norms and the oppressive social position that women held into the "clouds" of freedom and independence.

Jewett wrote a White Heron in 1886, when women were at the peak of feeling the strains of social repression. One of the key elements that became apparent through this reading is that even though the women in the country had less monetary wealth, they were freer to live their lives and to make their own decisions. They were not as tightly bound by social customs as women in the city were. It is assumed that with poverty comes unhappiness. However, this story reminds us that money is not everything and that there are other things that are more important.

Jewett cleverly alludes to other choices that the characters could have made, but did not. For instance, Sylvy could have decided to go with the man and leave her rural life. She could have left the life of poverty and gone back to the city. Had she made this choice she knew that she would never have to worry about money again. However, having come from the city originally, she also knew the personal freedom that she would be giving up. She felt that if she went away with the guest, she could learn to serve, follow, and love him, "as a dog loves" (Jewett, a White Heron, Harper Series, p. 1646). This line summarizes the oppression of the urban woman in the late 1880s.

Jewett tells her readers much about her feelings about social class and the political position of women during her time. She portrays women as "followers" of men. She alludes to the position of women as "servants" of man. She compares the loyalty of a woman to a man to that of a dog to its master. When Sylvy climbs the tree, she climbs out of her social role and experiences her true self, with all of the social constraints taken away. She has an unspoken social "duty" to do as the male stranger asks of her, but she decides not to give up her own feelings and morals for the sake of money and the servitude that it brings.

Jewett's attitude in a White Heron echoes the beginnings of a desire to break free from the social ties that bound women of the time. Jewett alludes to a type of silent suffering and oppression by women of the era. Although she did not say this outright, it is still present in the actions of the women and in the imagery that she uses. Class distinctions are defined through her characters. This attitude has the underpinnings of the suffrage movement that would follow in the future, where women broke free of the social bonds found in the writings of Jewett and other female authors of the time.