How would you describe the character Sylvia in "A White Heron"?

Sylvia changes from a shy little girl into a young adult during the course of the story. At the beginning of the story, her greatest pleasure is "to hide herself away among the huckleberry bushes." When the young ornithologist comes, Sylvia is attracted to him, both because he is a young man and because he is offering her a great deal of money. However, during her effort to climb the old pine tree, Sylvia experiences a transformation. At first, Sylvia is described as "a little girl" and "small and silly Sylvia". As she begins her journey up the tree, she is described as a "spark of human spirit". Finally, as she reaches the top of the tree, she is called "a pale star" and stands "triumphant". To show her growth, she can now look down two hawks and her perspective changes to include the ocean and distant farms. She has discovered "it was a vast and awesome world." Because of her journey into maturity, she is able to resist the hunter who only wants to kill the white heron for a "specimen" and enjoy nature for its true beauty.

She is a shy, independent, considerate child.  She enjoys being in the country with her grandmother, as opposed to the busy city. She is content with the simple things in life, like the beautiful countryside and her only companion, the cow Mistress Moolly.

She is also very mature, and makes a hard decision in the end to preserve the bird, at the sacrifice of her only human friend in quite some time.  She values the beauty and life of the creatures around her over the pleasures of human companionship.

Her maturity and independence stand out.  For a girl her age, those two traits are pretty rare.  Most often, teenage or preteen girls value sociality, friendship, and peer-approval, and put all else above having those things.  But Sylvia is unique; she relishes being alone, is afraid of most human interaction, and makes a tough decision at the end that sacrfices a tender friendship.

What type of personality does Sylvia have in "A White Heron" and how is it conveyed?

Sylvia, whose name connotes the forest, as it resembles the word sylvan, is a child of Nature; she is uncomfortable in the world of people.

When her grandmother takes Sylvia from the crowded manufacturing town and the house crowded with children, Sylvia immediately feels comfortable in the country—"it seemed as if she had never been alive at all before she came to live at the farm." For in the town Sylvia was "afraid of folks," as her grandmother has remarked. Even after Sylvia has moved away, on one evening the thought of the "great red-faced boy" who used to chase and frighten her hurries the timid girl along the path with her grandmother's cow as she herds the animal home from its grazing.

"Horror-stricken" by the whistle of a man, Sylvia feels that "the enemy" has discovered her when the handsome ornithologist approaches her on the path along which she brings home the cow. She does not dare to look directly at him. When he asks her name, she barely manages to say "Sylvy." Later, however, she is stirred romantically by this handsome young man: "the woman's heart, asleep in the child, was vaguely thrilled by a dream of love." And because of her attraction to this ornithologist, Sylvia considers helping him by finding the location of the white heron that he seeks. However, when she sees this great bird and learns his secret home in the green world which she so dearly loves, the girl cannot betray the heron.

The murmur of the pine's green branches is in her ears, she remembers how the white heron came flying through the golden air and how they watched the sea and the morning together, and Sylvia cannot speak; she cannot tell the heron's secret and give its life away.

Sylvia cannot sacrifice her beloved poetry of nature for the temporal "wave of human interest" that has recently stirred her.

How does Sylvia change in "A White Heron"?

At the beginning of "A White Heron," Sylvia has already gone through one metamorphosis. She has been living in the woods with her grandmother for a year and is now thoroughly at home in the countryside, far more so than she ever was in the city.

During the course of the story, however, Sylvia undergoes a change more profound and mystical than that of city-dweller to country-dweller. The country people still see it as entirely natural to prey on the wildlife around them. Mrs. Tilley and her neighbors would not have hesitated to help the hunter to find the white heron and enrich themselves in the process.

Sylvia, however, decides that "she cannot tell the heron's secret and give its life away." She identifies with the heron more closely than she does with the hunter, her grandmother, or anyone else. At the end of the story, the author asks,

Were the birds better friends than their hunter might have been,—who can tell?

The question is never answered, but Sylvia has made her choice. She is not merely a country-dweller, but one who feels more attached to the flora and fauna around her than to any human being or to human values and priorities.

What is the evolution of Sylvia's character in "A White Heron"?

At the beginning of the story, she is a shy, rather uncertain girl who is easily impressed by others, and willing to do things to gain their approval.  She is also rather naive and innocent, with very little exposure to human frailty, greed, vice or cruelty.  She has led a rather sheltered life that has protected her from having to deal with the reality that humans can be bad people sometimes.

All of these traits come out when she first meets the rather mysterious and handsome stranger in her area.  She is a bit intimidated by him, wowed by his newness and ways, and very eager to please and help him. She wants to impress him and make a good impression; her impressibility comes out, and her uncertainty.  However, as she learns more about what the man does, she internalizes it and realizes that she is going to have to make a big decision.

It is when he wants to find the heron that we see some real changes develop in her.  In her final decision to protect the heron over the man, we see her more confident, assertive and willing to forego the approval of someone new and exciting in order preserve someting more sacred and beautiful.  Her innocence and naivety have been replaced with the knowledged that there are people out there who are willing to destroy nature and make bad decisions. She shows great strength of character and maturiy when she decides to protect what she knows, in her heart, to be more important.  Her uncertainty is gone; she is certain, a bit more wise, and confident in her principles.

I hope that helped a bit; good luck!

How would you describe Sylvia in "A White Heron"? Why is her name significant?

“A White Heron” is an 1886 romantic short story written by American novelist, poet and short story writer Sarah Orne Jewett. It is the title story in her anthology A White Heron and Other Stories, and it focuses on Sylvia – a shy and observant nine year old girl, who lives in a country farm in the Maine woodlands with her grandmother, Mrs. Tilley. One day, she meets a gray-eyed ornithologist who loves birds and hunts them. He tells Sylvia that he would like her to help him find a rare white heron for his collection, by using her knowledge of birds. She agrees because she is slightly afraid of him and, later on, even starts to develop romantic feelings for him. Sylvia finds the heron’s nest by climbing up a big pine tree, however, she doesn’t reveal the heron’s location to the handsome hunter, as she feels that she cannot ‘give its life away.’

When she climbed the tree, Sylvia felt as though she was a bird herself, and could fly in the sky too. This is the main reason why she chose to keep the whereabouts of the bird a secret. Even though she was attracted to the stranger, she proved her virtue and connection to nature by saving the white heron’s life. Essentially, she lets go of the hunter, and much like the heron itself, doesn’t become the ‘prey’ in his hands. This behavior is very descriptive of her character.

Sylvia moved to the country from the busy life in the city. I think if she still lived in the city, she would have accepted the hunter’s offer of 10 dollars to find the bird, and would have easily let herself be swayed with his gifts and charming personality. But, Sylvia found solace in the country and learned to love the country life and everything about it: the nature, the animals, the birds, the freedom, the joy, and even the people. Yes, she only had a few friends and acquaintances, but I believe that this might have actually been Sylvia’s choice. I believe she (un)consciously tried to avoid everything that reminded her of the city life – the complexity of it, and the dire need for social acceptance everyone seemed to harbor. She was overwhelmed with the city life, and became afraid of people and social interaction. This actually might be the reason why she was initially afraid of the stranger when she first met him.

I believe she learned to appreciate the simplicity of life, thus allowing herself to enjoy in the smallest of pleasures, and with only a few people. I think that she regrets the loss of her friendship with the stranger, but I feel that she believes that she made the right choice by not helping him. She became much wiser and realized that sometimes you have to sacrifice some of the things that make you happy temporarily, so that you could be happy infinitely. In conclusion, Sylvia might be lonely from time to time, but she is certainly not lonesome; instead, she learned to harmoniously coexist with the nature that surrounds her and finally found her peace.

As far as her name is concerned, I think Jewett chose the name Sylvia because it further accentuates the connection between her main protagonist and nature, as the name originates from the Latin word Silva which literally translates to forest. Thus, the name Sylvia means someone who comes ‘from the forest’. In mythology, Sylvia means spirit of the forest, and the god of the forest was named Silvanus.

Summarize the information about Sylvia in the first part of "A White Heron".

We find that Sylvia had moved from her home in a busy town to live with her grandmother.She is initially nervous around people and prefers the farm with the company of Mistress Moolly, her cow. Calmed by the peace and tranquillity of her new environment, Sylvia is protected from the rush of modern life:

Sylvia had all the time there was, and very little use to make of it.

Sylvia is happy around the creatures of the forest and is skilful at understanding their ways. Her grandmother proudly tells the hunter

 ‘the wild creaturs counts her one o’themselves.’

Sylvia has a particular affinity with birds, which is what attracts the hunter to engage her company. She is clearly happier in their presence than with people, as her reaction to the sounds of the hunter reveals;

Suddenly this little woods-girl is horror-stricken to hear a clear whistle not very far away. Not a bird's-whistle, which would have a sort of friendliness, but a boy's whistle, determined, and somewhat aggressive.

How does the author depict Sylvia as special in "A White Heron"?

Jewett depicts Sylvia as a special character by showing the depth of her attachment to the natural world. She is unwilling to betray the location of the white heron even when she is offered money to do so by a young man she likes.

When the cheerful young stranger with the gun comes back with Sylvia to the neat and tidy little house where she lives in the New England "wilderness" with her grandmother, her grandmother describes Sylvia as completely at one with the local terrain and animals:

There ain't a foot o' ground she don't know her way over, and the wild creatures counts her one o' themselves.

The young man is interested in this, as he would like Sylvia to lead him to the elusive white heron, which he hopes to shoot and stuff. In fact, he offers her $10.00, a large sum of money in that time period, to show him where to find the white heron.

But Sylvia feels too much kinship with the creature to reveal its whereabouts, even for the money. When she climbs the tree to find the heron as dawn breaks, she feels the beauty of the world. Although she locates the heron and likes the young man very much, she cannot betray the bird:

She remembers how the white heron came flying through the golden air and how they watched the sea and the morning together, and Sylvia cannot speak; she cannot tell the heron's secret and give its life away.

Sylvia's refusal to give up the location of the heron even for badly needed money marks her out as a special child, with a special affinity to nature.