Regionalism In A White Heron

Although one story may appear to be different from the next, many stories have a common theme that they give the impression of sharing. Charles W. Chesnutt’s “The Goophered Grapevine” and Sarah Orne Jewett’s “A White Heron” appear to demonstrate a common theme buried within their stories that differ in how a character responds to a proposed change. While the characters’ responses to possible societal changes are initially different, both characters’ eventual negative feelings regarding these changes seem to reflect the stories’ theme of regionalism. Subsequently, an element that the stories share that may appear to exhibit regionalism occurs when a stranger enters the plot and attempts to change the characters’ simple way of life. In Chesnutt’s piece, the stranger is a Yankee who persuades the owner of the plantation to alter his way of farming to yield more product. However, the Yankee’s adjustment did not help, but hinders the owner’s ability to yield grapes. Therefore, the modification from the owner’s initial system of harvesting grapes to the Yankee’s industrialized method that involves a “noo wine-press” demonstrates regionalism because the failure of the Yankee’s method results in the owner’s negative feelings concerning the change (Chesnutt 705). Since the owner’s original method of harvesting grapes worked better that the Yankee’s, this situation appears to display the regionalism characteristic of antipathy to change because the owner eventually believes that his original way of harvesting …show more content…
In the case of Chesnutt’s and Jewett’s pieces, the characters’ desire for a simpler time demonstrate the shared theme of regionalism. Thus, although these stories are creative and unique in their differences from other stories, they, as well as many stories written, are not entirely diverse because they do share something in common,