Perhaps the most recognized practitioner of the short story genre, Edgar Allen Poe once wrote that a short story is any story that can be read within a single sitting. This would enable the reader to experience the full impact of immediacy in understanding the story’s ideas (Poe, 1914). It was also Poe who demonstrated for the rest of the world just how many symbols might be used in order to tell a story. Authors use symbols to incorporate a range of ideas in a single image in order to heighten the intended effect of the author. As a result of these techniques, short stories have a way of conveying sometimes very complex thoughts in very simple and understandable terms that appeal to more levels of understanding than just the intellect. Anything within the story can provide symbols or clues as to the underlying theme or message of the story. Symbols can be as obvious as a great building or as subtle as the narrative tone or contrasts made. By carefully constructing the symbolism they use, writers can force their readers into taking a new look at an old idea. In the story “The White Heron,” author Sarah Orne Jewett uses symbolism to convey a story of enlightenment by using the cow to symbolize material existence, the tree to symbolize the journey to enlightenment, and the white heron to symbolize spirituality and enlightenment.
Within this story, the author uses an old cow to symbolize the basic needs of material existence. The old cow is described as “a plodding, dilatory, provoking creature in her behavior, but a valued companion for all that.” The cow represents one of the only sources of sustenance for the grandmother and Sylvia. Although she’s old and sometimes quite difficult, the material life she represents is still desirable. The difficulties involved in finding the easier elements of this life are discovered in the actions of the cow as it spends each day discovering a new hiding spot from its owners. “It was her greatest pleasure to hide away among the huckleberry bushes, and though she wore a loud bell she had made the discovery that if one stood perfectly still it would not ring.” This illustrates that even the simplest tasks were often made difficult simply as a result of the women’s position in the world. Even though the cow is difficult to locate and does her best to remain concealed from the little girl, she is not so elusive that she won’t make herself known in her own time and she does provide comfort. “Sometimes in pleasant weather, it was a consolation to look upon the cow’s pranks as an intelligent attempt to play hide and seek, and as the child had no playmates she lent herself to this amusement with a good deal of zest.” The cow’s game gives the child a sense of play in a world free of any other playmate and her milk ensures that the grandmother is always able to offer some form of hospitality when visitors arrive unexpectedly. This is made clear, as is their dependence on the cow when the grandmother welcomes the ornithologist. “You might fare better if you went out to the main road a mile or so, but you’re welcome to what we’ve got. I’ll milk right off, and you make yourself at home.” Although the farm is very poor, shown to the surprise of the visitor at the pleasant accommodations, it can supply the old woman and the young girl with everything they need and not much more.
From the material world, Sylvia makes her way to the large pine tree, which symbolizes the journey of the individual from the material plane to the spiritual. This connection between the great tree and the sense of spirituality is first suggested when Sylvia is in the woods within the first part of the story. As she walks and enjoys the light and the company of the young man, she notices “a stirring in the great boughs overhead. They were full of little birds and beasts that seemed to be wide awake, and going about their world.” When Sylvia starts her climb, she starts from a completely different perspective than where she’ll end up as she first has to climb up a totally different tree. “First she must mount the white oak tree that grew alongside, where she was almost lost among the dark branches and the green leaves heavy and wet with dew.” Although she couldn’t start her spiritual journey from where she stands on the ground, she is able to use the oak to help her achieve the height she needs to transition into the pine. She makes a leap of faith as she crosses from one tree to the other: “The way was harder than she thought; she must reach far and hold fast, the sharp dry twigs caught and held her and scratched her like angry talons, the pitch made her thin little fingers clumsy and stiff as she went round and round the tree’s great stem, higher and higher upward.” The spiritual journey provides support, but it is tentative, sharp and sometimes confusing as it requires the supreme effort of the seeker. Even after she feels she has been climbing forever, “the tree seemed to lengthen itself out as she went up, and to reach farther and farther upward.” However, once she reaches the top of the tree, she is able to see the entire world from the ocean and the sails on the sea to the villages with the church steeples and the forest surrounding it.
Having reached this height finally, Sylvia finally begins to gain a greater understanding of her world from a spiritual point of view. She looks around and realizes she has a view unequaled by most and is moved by the motion of the birds as she looks in the direction of the rising sun. “Toward the glorious east flew two hawks with slow-moving pinions … Their gray feathers were as soft as moths; they seemed only a little way from the tree, and Sylvia felt as if she too could go flying away among the clouds.” As she watches the day come to life, Sylvia begins to achieve her own enlightenment and is finally blessed with the sight she came to see – “a white spot of him like a single floating feather comes up from the dead hemlock and grows larger, and rises, and comes close at last, and goes by the landmark pine with a steady sweep of the wing and outstretched slender neck and crested head.” This motion of the pure white bird symbolizes the motion of the girl’s spirit as she feels herself becoming a part of the greater natural world opening around her. And while she has attained a new sense of herself and her role in the world as a result of this sight, her experience isn’t yet finished. “Do not move a foot or a finger, little girl, do not send an arrow of light and consciousness from your two eager eyes, for the heron has perched on a pine bough not far beyond yours, and cries back to its mate on the nest and plumes his feathers for the new day.” Although Sylvia hasn’t quite fully come into her realization yet regarding whether to focus on the spiritual or the material, the close proximity of the heron reveals the closeness of her enlightenment while the idea that it is calling back to its mate suggests that she has not yet made it all the way to her spiritual home.
The story of “The White Heron” is a story of a young girl as she experiences enlightenment through her connection to nature. From her position as friend to the trusty cow that will continue to provide her with her most basic material needs, Sylvia is encouraged into the greater world at the request of the visitor who is in search of a white heron to add to his collection of stuffed birds. Because he is not interested in the inherent value of the bird, he has been having difficulty finding it and enlists the help of the innocent young child to help him discover its nesting place. Sylvia determines to help him because of the material comfort he offers to the grandmother in compensation for her help. However, as she climbs the great pine tree that stands on the top of the hill, she begins to experience the spiritual awakening that characterizes the story. Her climb up the pine tree is symbolic of the type of journey spiritual seekers must undergo as they struggle up through the darkness, becoming stuck in places, scratched, and even being forced to make a tremendous leap of faith that they are heading in the correct direction. As she reaches the top of the tree, she is able to gain a glimpse of the world around her from a perspective she never would have realized otherwise. She gains sight of some grey hawks as they float on the air beneath her and begins to understand a stronger sense of the spiritual realm and its importance to her personally. With this new perspective, she is then treated to a glimpse of the white bird, letting her know that her decision to operate on a more spiritual level is the correct one for her. The story ends as Sylvia returns to the mundane material world and is pressured to sacrifice the spiritual glimpse she has had in exchange for the material comfort she had been offered to begin with. She has come to realize that there is something much more valuable in the living bird than she could gain from the passing wealth of the stranger.
Works Cited
Poe, Edgar Allen. “The Philosophy of Composition.” (1914). Bob’s Byway. (2008).