Trust In Sarah Jewett's A White Heron

Trust is an asset of life that is hard to gain, but very easy to lose. When coming into contact with a stranger, a person has an internal conflict in deciding if the stranger is friend or an enemy In “A White Heron”, The reader sees Sarah Jewett use this very concept. One person states Jewett’s characters “...are not young women having dramatic adventures and finding husbands, but spinsters, and widows and children and professional women leading quiet, sometimes lonely, lives”. The reader sees this with Bily in the story. “A White Heron”, takes place in the twentieth century, and shows how a young girl, named Sylvia faces trust issues and the challenges that coincide. She he is stuck with making an important, decision possibly the biggest decision that she has had to make in her entire life. Sylvia must must decide if she should reveal the location of the white heron, or listen to her heart and not …show more content…
The tree, where the heron’s nest is located, represents protection. The great pine tree is “the last of its generation” (Jewett 679). The tree has experienced many things in the forest including wind, rain, cold a heat which makes it also the strongest in the forest. This is one reason the white heron made its nest there. It trusted the tree to hide it as well as protect it from all danger. When Sylvia is climbing up the tree, it begins to care for her “bird like soul” (Atkinson), and she is hidden “like the heron” (Atkinson). She has no fear of falling. When she reaches the top, Sylvia is able to see a “vast and awesome world” (Jewett 681). She is able to forget her troubles, breathe freely and become one with nature. “A deep and intimate bond of trust” (Atkinson) forms between the tree and Sylvia. When Sylvia forms a trust with the tree, she is able to find the heron’s nest. The heron then comes out of hiding and shows the trust it also feels for