Seminar paper from the year 2001 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,7 (B-), University of Freiburg (English Seminar), course: Introduction to the Study of English and American Literature, 4 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Sarah Orne Jewett’s “A White Heron” seems to be an easy ...

Seminar paper from the year 2001 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,7 (B-), University of Freiburg (English Seminar), course: Introduction to the Study of English and American Literature, 4 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Sarah Orne Jewett’s “A White Heron” seems to be an easy fairy tale-like story at firstsight, but if you have a closer look at it, you notice its complexity and that it is this
complexity that makes the story “work”. In the story we can find the themes country
versus city, pastoral versus industrial, and female versus male.1 I want to focus on
nature as it seems to play the important role of making the story idyllic and somehow
connects the different themes.
As Jewett once described her childhood self as “wild and shy”2 just like Sylvia, the
main character in “A White Heron”. I will first look at Sarah Orne Jewett’s own life and
her attitude towards nature an then analyse the function of nature in “A White Heron”.

1 Josephine Donovan, Sarah Orne Jewett, p.69.
2 Paula Blanchard, Sarah Orne Jewett: Her world and her work, p.31.