The White Heron

Sylvia, the protagonist, is a young and innocent child that complimented the theme of innocence throughout the story. She was a city girl, taken to live in the country with the elderly Mrs. Tilley. She found when she arrived that she loved the simple living and beauty she found in the wilderness. She knew the animals and the surroundings well, which is why when the hunting stranger arrived in the woods, he asked her about the birds, specifically the white heron. He wanted to hunt and kill the bird, to keep in his collection of preserved creatures. Sylvia knew of the bird, but refused to tell the charming and handsome stranger of it's whereabouts. She kept the birds "secret", at the price of much needed money for her family. Her innocence and pure heart saved the pure white bird's life.

A White Heron

After I read "A White Heron", I noticed the thing that stood out to me the most was Silvia's character. I feel that she defines and adds so much to the story. Yes, she is the main character, but her decisions she makes throughout the story and how much she grows even as a nine year old little girl, show how important her character really is. Silvia chooses to protect the beauty and innocence of nature over money. The young man, who she seemed to fall a little in love with, offered her money for the knowledge as to where the white heron was. However, even though Silvia and her grandmother could have used the money, Silvia felt the need to protect the white heron, and let it live in peace. She had horror-filled images of the white heron dying and having blood all over it from a gun shot and she realized within herself she must protect the heron at all costs. Although Silvia had only lived in the country with her grandmother for about a year, she has completely and totally fallen in love with nature and animals. She enjoys the sounds and feels of the nature around her. Ultimately, this new life she has found is more important to her than any amount of money or childish feeling of love for the man with the gun.

A White Heron

"As for Sylvia herself, it seemed as if she never had been alive at all before she came to live at the farm. She thought often with wistful compassion of a wretched geranium that belonged to a town neighbor." What a strong point for the young girl, she had never been alive at all in her city life before. I see the mention of a sad potted plant as a comparison of the girl bound by the city compared to the boundful nature that surrounds her in new country home. Slyvia is in awe of what is around her, after admiring the young cat she says to herseself "that this was a beautiful place to live in, and she never should wish to go home".In these idyllic surroundings these three docile ladies (Slyvia, Mistress Moolly, and Mrs. Tilley) are living a life in a lovley wooded home.
The whistling of the Hunter disrupts the calm of the night Sylvia has become accustomed to. All that Slyvia has seen in her time living in the woods, she knows the existence of the White Heron the Hunter seeks, but her loyality to her beautiful new home prevents her from taking the Hunter's money.
"No amount of thought, that night, could decide how many wished-for treasures the ten dollars, so lightly spoken of, would buy." The treasures Slyvia cherishes and preserves are now that of the lives of the birds she so admires. She cannot bear the thought of seeing a creature she so admires being shot out of the sky, never to float in the morning sun again by this gun toteing intruder to her quite life. The third person omnisient pleads on Sylvia's behalf "Whatever treasures were lost to her, woodlands and summer-time, remember! Bring your gifts and graces and tell your secrets to this lonely country child!"

The White Heron

As the story begins we are taken to the place where Sylvia grows up. As the author describes the dimly lit woods and her friend Mistress Moolly, her cow, I could already feel a connection between me and Sylvia. Growing up in a place where there are no children your age makes your imagination run wild and when Sylvia plays hide and seek with the cow it shows that she has always had to entertain herself in ways most children couldn't. When Sylvia was younger she grew up in an industrial city and now that she has the luxury of living the slow life she is taking everything in. When walking down the path to get back to her grandmothers house she is stopped by a man. She is taken aback when the man asks to stay at her house, knowing that her grandmother wouldn't be too pleased she leads the man to the house. As the night goes on and the man starts to tell stories about where he has traveled and the horrific things he has seen, Sylvia becomes awed by this mans presence. When the man learns about Sylvia's knowledge of the birds his interests shift towards the young girl. As the story proceeds the man and Sylvia spend more time together and the young woman starts to think about love. Her thoughts make me think of young love and how naive children can be. She does not know this man but he is nice to her and pays attention to her so she thinks she is in love with him. It almost seems as if she does not lead to the hunter to the heron so she has more time to spend with him. I think a big turning point in the story is when Sylvia climbs the tree and becomes one with nature. She notices how big and rough the tree is, how loud the birds are singing and how beautiful the morning sky looks; so when she sees the white heron she knows she will never tell the hunter, no matter how much money he offers. For a young girl she realizes something most of us do not; there are more important things than money.

A White Heron

The main character of the story is Sylvia and she was originally a city girl. Sylvia was then forced to move in with her grandmother all the way in the New England country side. What I got out of the story was that it had a lot of symbolism throughout the entire story. The bottom line of the story was that Sylvia had a really intense connection with nature and would rather have the white heron live then receive the cash reward. The symbolism in the A White Heron happens when they talk about the actual white heron. The white symbolizes purity like a dove and the innocence was also represented. Also represented as purity would be the cows milk "Moolly" which was also white to symbolize purity. The hunter was always mentioned as a dark and mysterious character. He would represent the so called "dark side" of the story by wanting to pay the girl to show him where the heron was so he could have killed the bird. This was my interpretation of the story.

A White Heron

The one thing that I found to be the most interesting after reading this story was Sylvia and her feelings toward the hunter throughout the story. In the beginning she is frightened by him and doesn't want to speak to him. After he is accepted into her home, she doesn't really want anything to do with him. She pays him no attention as he is in her home and converses with her grandmother. After he offers to pay her ten dollars to help him find the white heron, she suddenly becomes more interested in him. She becomes infatuated with him and studies his every move. Although she has a strong interest in the man, in the end she chooses not to tell him of the white heron's whereabouts. I enjoyed watching Sylvia's changing feelings toward the strange gentleman. She wanted nothing to with him in the beginning, then wanted all he could give her, and then suddenly she chooses that he instincts are best. She would rather save the white heron and keep peace with herself and her love for nature than give it up to a stranger willing to pay her money.

A White Heron

One of the many ideas and people that stand out to me throughout the story is Sylvia. Yes, she is a main character but she is more then a simple character who is just a child. In many ways you see her growing and maturing as a young lady throughout the sequence of time. Not only is she maturing she is showing how she is not selfish. She could have easily taken the money from the hunter instead of protecting nature and the heron. She grew up in the city and its interesting to see how within one short year of living with her parents she has become so passionate for the nature and world around her. She learns to put other before herself which seems to be a hard lesson to learn at such a young age. Last but not least you see her having a deeper connection to nature and the heron ahead of anyone and anything else. It is interesting how she receives more satisfaction out of being connected to nature rather then human life as a whole.

Bullet in the Brain

6) Anders is not a sympathetic character from the exposition to the climax. Does your sense of him shift over the rest of the story? Does he become more sympathetic to you? If yes, account for this.

Right off the bat, Anders appears to be somewhat of a cocky, sarcastic guy who has no problem with everyone knowing that he is this way. For instance, in the conversation in line with the random woman who he has likely never talked to in his life, he blatantly comes out with a wave of sarcasm and kind of ridicules the woman's comment about the tellers closing their positions. He isn't making fun of this woman's concern out of anger because of the inconvenience it's causing him, but rather he is simply just being a dick because that's how he is.

As the story progresses, my sense of him definitely shifts because before the robbery commences, my perception of the guy is that he is an asshole with whom I would never want to have a conversation. However, once the robbery kicks off I found myself kind of liking the guy because of how he viewed the entire situation. The expected layman reaction to being in a bank during a stick-up is panic and extreme concern for making it out alive. Anders takes in the whole situation as a big joke from the start and actually makes it known to everyone in the bank, especially the masked man with the gun to his head. When he is told to look at the ceiling, his apathy for the gravity of the situation is portrayed through his analysis of the artwork on the ceiling. So I would say that at this point, I took a small liking to his character because I've always enjoyed the characters who have the confidence to downplay a critical moment that could potentially end his or her life.

Once the robber finally gets fed up and pulls the trigger, Anders' character begins its transition into a more sympathetic one in my mind. However, he is not sympathetic for all the reasons that the typical character would be in a moment-of-death literary description. Rather, he becomes sympathetic to me in the sense that what "flashes before his eyes" as he is dying is the baseball field and Coyle's cousins grammatical error, which are two things that he apparently has a lot of love for. The typical character would think about his family and everything that a human being would conventionally remember loving. Wolff mentions all of those things but for the sole purpose of showing the reader what Anders doesn't remember. While this technique portrays Anders' character as a heartless, apathetic human being, his "soft side" is brought back around in the memory of the sandlot, the heat, and the misuse of language which he apparently loved to think about on a regular basis.

Bullet in the Brain

6) Anders is portrayed throughout the story as an arrogant and cynical middle aged man. He is sarcastic and frustrating throughout the story, until the final events climax and the reader gets a sense of him as a true character. Through Wolff's narration, the reader finds out about the life of Anders and we learn what is important to him, what has hurt and disturbed him, and finally; what moment he remembers with joy before his last one. He thinks back to a time of boyhood, which promotes imagery of purity, curiosity and excitement. He does not think of the things he once loved (his wife, his job, his child) but of a time when he was alone in a field full of boys, focusing on a trivial few words stated by one of his friends.

During the playing of these flashbacks Anders becomes relatable. We begin to understand the reasons for his jaded attitude which causes the reader to feel sympathy, or possibly empathy, while he is dying. Although the reader cannot feel empathy for Anders' actual death, one can understand how a love can die and how a child can disappoint, and the very real human feelings of disdain for your family that are not generally discussed in society. Having to live with the people you have grown tired or indifferent to would be extremely trying, especially when they are supposed to be of upmost importance to you. It is an uneasy feeling the reader gets from making these relations and it causes a desire to dislike Anders, but by the end of the story the reader feels sorry for him, and also may be thinking of what seemingly trivial moment they might think of right before death.

Bullet in the Brain

6) Anders is portrayed throughout the story as an arrogant and cynical middle aged man. He is sarcastic and frustrating throughout the story, until the final events climax and the reader gets a sense of him as a true character. Through Wolff's narration, the reader finds out about the life of Anders and we learn what is important to him, what has hurt and disturbed him, and finally; what moment he remembers with joy before his last one. He thinks back to a time of boyhood, which promotes imagery of purity, curiosity and excitement. He does not think of the things he once loved (his wife, his job, his child) but of a time when he was alone in a field full of boys, focusing on a trivial few words stated by one of his friends.

During the playing of these flashbacks Anders becomes relatable. We begin to understand the reasons for his jaded attitude which causes the reader to feel sympathy, or possibly empathy, while he is dying. Although the reader cannot feel empathy for Anders' actual death, one can understand how a love can die and how a child can disappoint, and the very real human feelings of disdain for your family that are not generally discussed in society. Having to live with the people you have grown tired or indifferent to would be extremely trying, especially when they are supposed to be of upmost importance to you. It is an uneasy feeling the reader gets from making these relations and it causes a desire to dislike Anders, but by the end of the story the reader feels sorry for him, and also may be thinking of what seemingly trivial moment they might think of right before death.