Response to S.O. Jewett's "The White Heron"

I thought "The White Heron" by Sarah Orne Jewett was especially great because of the way she wrote the main character Sylvia--with such total trueity. I feel Jewett really captured exactly what it was like to be nine years old. In fact, Sylvia reminded me a lot of what my own little sister was like when she was about that age, and, actually, when I was that age as well. In terms of writing style, I feel like she wrote "The White Heron" most spontaneously, almost like the way kids think--totally in the moment, and then already onto the next. Like on page 416, at the end of the 2nd paragraph, Jewett moves suddenly from what Mrs. Tilley's saying to a description of some cat that shows up. Also, the totally playful word choices and phrases are most reminiscent of childhood, like, for instance, also on page 416, Jewett writes "So Sylvia had to hunt for her until she found her, and call Co'! Co'! with never an answering Moo, until her childish patience was quite spent." Ill.

In class, we spoke about the choice the girl Sylvia makes at the end of the story--how she decides not to tell her new friend, the unnamed older man hunter/ornithologist, about the white crane she saw while she sat on top a pine tree--the same white crane that the man wanted to hunt and kill for his collection, and the same white crane he would have paid her 10$ for finding. It's actually in my opinion that Sylvia most definitely did the right thing--respecting the earth as it is, instead of selling it out for some short-term reward. And in another way, she not only ended up respecting nature, the earth and all that, but also herself--in a way, this was her independence, her own personal choice she made from what she, herself felt was right, in her heart, from her morals, which takes a lot of guts to do to say the least.