Feminism In A White Heron

‘A White Heron’ starts in the evening as the young Sylvia is looking for a milk cow astray in the woods belonging to New England. She is amazed by the sudden emergence of a young man carrying a gun and proclaims to be an ornithologist who comes to his rural home to kill, hunt, and stuff wild birds for his pleasure. He meets Sylvia and is led to her grandmother’s farm. The younger visitor charms the grandmother and has interests in the granddaughter and enlists their aid by providing much-needed money as well as helping in the relocation of the nest to a rare white heron. The next day after his arrival, Sylvia accompanies the man to find his quest, which they fail to locate.
‘A White Heron’ is depicted as a feminist quest in which Sylvia’s …show more content…
What the author seems to be suggesting is that Sylvia might finally be able to overcome her long time aversion to human contact. However, her very act of initiating this relationship would be a betrayal of the natural world, which essentially comforted and nurtured her. Her encounter with the hunter can be viewed as an invitation for her to step into the world of adulthood and romance. However, this would be at the expense of the independence and carefree innocence of childhood for the uncertainty of such relationship. The hunter is not only an opportunity for Sylvia to fall in love but also has the potential to alleviate Sylvia and her grandmother from their poverty. However, their acceptance of the hunter’s man is sure to supplant the quiet and peaceful lifestyle of the village.
Additionally, the hunter is seen as a symbol of broader historical and social significance which is described by Theodore Hovet as an “an encounter of modern social forces with provincial America”. As a Hovet further puts it, “gun and money characterize the imperialistic tendencies of the industrial America” (68). The hunter is an embodiment of both risk and promise as a symbol of both encroaching modernity and approaching