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A Literary Analysis of A White Heron
Critical attention to Sarah Ornes A White Heron has deemed it as a story that is greater than a
mere piece of regionalism. Her story of a girl who decides to hide the details of the location of a
white heron that she loves from a hunter depicts some thematic elements that are attractive to
todays contemporary literary criticism. Some critics such as Michael Atkinson and Elizabeth
Ammons believe that the story is a lamentation of humans estrangement from nature and that
Jewett is likely recreating a male defined narrative structure only to reject it afterwards.
However, these critical stands seem rather tenuous since they are coined from the storys
imagery. A careful review of the words and phrases she uses in her narrative also add up to the
narrative voice for their meanings and applications within her text have an effect on a readers
comprehension. It would thus be correct to say that Jewetts piece lacks a stable narrative voice
which obscures the effect she intended to portray.
This stand does not necessarily dictate that other critics failed to notice this flaw in Jewetts
story. Josephine Donovan and Richard Cary define the storys narrative flaws as weaknesses that
are evidenced in Jewetts style. On the contrary, Held and Catherine Barnes Stevenson maintain
that these flaws in the storys narrative actually strengthen the storys advocacy of some themes.
While Terry Hellers opinion that Jewetts story narrative duplicity speaks much about the

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narrative presence as it does with the themes of female consciousness or nature, the narrative
voice in the story is constantly changing. This results in an instability which undermines the
effect of the perceived advocacy of any themes that present themselves. These fallbacks
additionally cut down on the storys rhetoric of transcendence and communion which have been
strongly suggested by others. Three factors thus constitute the unstable voice in Jewetts piece,
and these include:
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The illusion of narrative distance

The variations in tense
The evidence of a narrative intrusion on the second part

The Illusion of Narrative Distance

A storys narrative objectivity depends on the problematic concept of the perceived distance
between a narrator and the actual narrative. A conventional third-person narrative usually allows
the events in the story to speak for themselves to a point where the narrator cannot be viewed as
an entirely separate entity. The truth behind narrative distance, however, is that it is an illusion.
Though, a constant narrative presence is crucial in helping the narrator to create a separate
identity when coming up with the events of a narrative. Disruptions in a narrative distance can
thus be viewed as inconsequential to a storys meaning and even perceived as a stylistic
weakness.
The story begins by coming up with a distant and objective narrator by the use of the indefinite
pronoun A little girl referring to Sylvia. There is no evident affinity that is expressed for this
little girl and this creates a sense of a separate narrative presence that is concealed by this
indifference. The fact that narrative indifference is established in the beginning of the piece
suggests that whoever is speaking can be termed as inconsequential. The additional use of the

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adjective little further depicts this narrative distance between the author and the character
Sylvia. The word little here shadows Sylvia as someone who is small in size or age. Rather than
relating Sylvias size to another object in the narrative, Jewett portrays Sylvia as a distant
character in the story. This impression does not end here for it is sustained in the events that are
related in an indifferent manner in the first part of the story.
The illusion is further reinforced since the narrative perspective appears to be without focus.
Gerard Genette reminds readers that care should be taken in not confusing the perspective of a
narrative with the overall voice in the story since it is possible for a piece to have an emotionally
engaged narrator despite multiple perspectives being present. Though, these multiple
perspectives create a superficial impression of objectivity. In part one, for instance, the
impression suggests a sense of fairness since it is linked by a disinterested entity. This effect is
likely to be predominant on the modern reader who lives in a mass media age which glorifies
objectivity.
Counter to the illusion of the narrative distance is an undercurrent that suggests a connection
between the narrator and the protagonist and how the two merge together. It is evident that the
narrators nature of expressing thoughts without quotation marks presents a kind of confusion
between a character and the narrator. The first part of Jewetts narrative has several alterations in
the narrative distance. In the beginning, for instance, as Sylvia walks the cow home, the narrator
explains: Sometimes in pleasant weather it was a consolation to look upon the cows pranks as
an intelligent attempt to play hide and seek, and the child... lent herself to this amusement
(161). The writer shows no direct attribution to Sylvia in this statement. In fact, her choice of
words in portraying her message here further distances Sylvia from the narrator. She uses the
word it to describe a situation or event that naturally occurs without implicating Sylvia here.

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The narrator also seems to understand this experience as well for she shares the feeling of
consolation with Sylvia. The same technique is employed in the first passage that talks about
Sylvias grandmother. The narrator seems to lapse into the characteristic language together with
the speech of the grandmother without actually using attribution. In the statement The good
woman suspected that Sylvia loitered occasionally on her own account; there never was such a
child for straying about out-of-doors since the world was made! (162), the writer uses the
exclamation mark to indicate the emotional intensity expressed by the author but brought out by
the author. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word woman as an adult human female,
and in the way Jewett uses this word, it creates a distortion in understanding who she was
actually being discussed here. The author also appears to merge with all three characters in the
first part of the narrative. While it may seem genuine, the technique goes way ahead of the
narrators motive of telling the reader about the intimate thoughts of Sylvia to what can be
viewed as a shared consciousness. In this analysis, the boundary that separates Sylvias feelings
with those of the narrator appear to be disappearing and the sense of intimacy is also enhanced
by the lack of direct quotations by Sylvia. Conclusively, the writer appears to speak for Sylvia
since the character only speaks directly twice in the story. The passages with Sylvia thus seem to
give an impression of two voices sounding simultaneously. This intimate attachment between
character and narrator contradicts the illusion of narrative distance that is suggested by other
aspects of the text which we have already looked at. The illusion of narrative distance also
diminishes a sense of separate narrative presence whereas the technique of merging voices
creates the existence of a totally different character apart from the characters themselves.
Variations in the tense

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There exist frequent shifts in tense in the narrative which further tend to complicate the
impression of the narrative distance. These shifts have also been noticed by many critics. George
Held, for example maintains that the switch to the present tense indicates the immediacy of
Sylvias convergence with nature and in specific with the present tense narrative of Sylvia seeing
the white heron as the story ends. Gayle also agrees to this idea but argues further that there is an
absence of a clear boundary between the past and the present, and this is evident in the storys
first shift in tense. By use of the past tense, Jewett explains how Sylvia was remembering the
red-faced-boy who always chased after her. The narrative then immediately switches back to
the present tense. This surprises the reader in a similar way to how Sylvia is surprised by the
whistle in the statement Suddenly, this little woods-girl is horror-stricken to hear a clear whistle
not very far away (163). These past experiences in Sylvias mind directly affect the present
experiences to the point that the present and the past seem to merge into one. Her word horrorstricken implies that Sylvia became briefly paralyzed with shock. The use of the past tense also
indicates that the narrator has a foreknowledge of events but the entire event has already unrolled
in the past. This shift to the present tense therefore implies that the Jewett is relating events as
they come without knowing what the future has in store and just as surprised by the occurrences
as the character. A tense shift such as this one suggests an intrusive narrative presence coupled
with the loss of narrative authority, and this strikes a discordant note in a text that at first seemed
to have an obscure narrator.
Narrative Intrusion in the Second Part
In contrast to part one of Jewetts A White Heron, the second part totally discredits the notion
of a narrative distance since it has too many frequent ruptures in the illusion. The focalization
shifts from a fixed internalization focalization since the story never leaves the point of view of

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Sylvia (Genette, 17). In fact, the occurrences in which the voices of Sylvia and the narrator
merge into one become more pronounced. When Sylvia recalls the tree in the forest and hopes
that it can help her in her quest for heron, the narrator presents a gradual merging of voices. In
the line Now she thought of the tree with a new excitement, for, if one climbed it at break of
day, could not one see all the world, and easily discover whence the white heron flew, and mark
the place and find the hidden nest (167) several examples present themselves. The phrase she
thought creates a thin distance between Sylvias feelings from that of the narrator. On the other
hand, the indefinite pronoun one instead of I or she, closes the distance by optionally
allowing the existence of a new person who, in this case, is the narrator.
Towards the storys end, a new narrative presence is made explicit. The narrative persona of a
detached and all-seeing observer which dominated in the first part of the story is put to a halt
from this point until the end of the story. The writer additionally reveals herself once more in a
second statement:
Alas, if the great wave of human interest which flooded for the first time this dull little life
should sweep away the satisfactions of an existence heart to heart with the nature and the dumb
life of the forest! (168)
Here, the narrator appears to have given the readers the crux of the story, but the statement seems
superfluous (Held). This is because Sylvias romantic spark over the young hunter seems
belittled where the writer includes the phrase wave of human interest. Jewetts use of the word
wave indicates some elements of imagery since it portrays a sudden occurrence of a
phenomenon. The phrase dull little life scrapes out what earlier sounded as if the writer was
trying to make Sylvia feel like she had never been alive at all before she came to live at the farm.

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Jewetts use of the word dull shows a lack of excitement in the life the writer speaks about.
Additionally, the effects of the adjective dumb that describe the life of the forest are also varied
for it is used to show that Sylvia found that life stupid and plain.
The narrative intrusion rather complicates the reading of the story since the reader is forced to
consider the intentions of a narrator. The narrator appears to morph into a character herself that is
wrapped up in the dynamism of the story. As the story approaches the end, the narrative voice
appears to be increasingly unstable and rather contradictory to the ending of the story. This is
because the narrative progresses in the present tense as Sylvia makes her way to the tree while
filled with excitement of the knowledge of herons secret. But the writer then shifts back to the
past tense and we are back to the point where the grandmother is calling out to Sylvia. This tense
shift creates an unstable narrative authority.
All in all, it is clear that Jewetts narration does indeed lack a stable voice which intensely cuts
back the effect she is trying to reveal. The illusion of narrative distance, the changes in tenses
which is evident throughout the story, and the narrative intrusion in the second part of the story
all spell out one thing. Her choice of words in some statements also conceal the meaning of
important elements of the story and even aid in bringing out the three factors that create the
unstable voice in the narrative. It would thus be correct to conclude that A White Heron
complicates a readers attempt to find out the meaning in the story or assess the narrators
sensibilities.

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Works Cited
Ammons, Elizabeth. "The Shape of Violence in Jewett's" A White Heron"." Colby Quarterly 22.1
(1986): 3.
Atkinson, Michael. "THE NECESSARY EXTRAVAGANCE OF JEWETT, SARAH, ORNE
VOICES OF AUTHORITY IN A'WHITE HERON'." Studies in Short Fiction 19.1 (1982): 7174.
Cary, Richard. Sarah Orne Jewett. Vol. 19. Twayne Publishers, 1962.
Held, George. "HEART TO HEART WITH NATURE+ FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES OF THE
JEWETT, SARAH, ORNE STORY-WAYS OF LOOKING AT A'WHITE HERON'." Colby
Library Quarterly 18.1 (1982): 55-65.
Heller, Terry. "The Rhetoric of Communion in Jewett's" A White Heron"." Colby Quarterly 26.3
(1990): 6.
Lewin, Jane E., ed. Narrative discourse: An essay in method. Cornell University Press, 1983.
Smith, Gayle L. "The Language of Transcendence in Sarah Orne Jewett's" A White Heron"."
Colby Quarterly 19.1 (1983): 6.
Stevenson, Catherine Barnes. "THE DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE NARRATOR IN
JEWETT, SARAH, ORNE FICTION." Colby Library Quarterly 11.1 (1975): 1-12.