Biography

Sarah Orne Jewett was a regional writer who grew up in the coastal town of South Berwick, Maine. Her father was a country doctor who allowed his daughter to accompany him on his rounds; many of the rural people Jewett encountered inspired her later fiction. In 1869 one of Jewett's first stories was accepted for publication in the Atlantic Monthly by William Dean Howells. With Howells's encouragement, Jewett continued to craft tales about the rural inhabitants of "Deephaven," a fictional town based on the bygone days of South Berwick. Strong women populated her rural tales, and strong women comprised her friends in the artistic circles of Boston in the 1870s; Annie Adams Fields, wife of the late publisher James T. Fields, would be her closest companion from 1881 until her death. Jewett's works include A Country Doctor (1884), A White Heron (1886), and her classic Country of the Pointed Firs (1896).

Explorations

Compared to the NAAL stories by James and Wharton, Jewett's A White Heron (1886) has such a simple plot that it might suggest a children's story. A quiet young girl, raised in the country and happy alone in nature, declines to tell a hunter how to find the nest of a white heron. The way the story is told, however, makes it a remarkable and even experimental work of American regionalism and realism.

1. The pine tree, heron, and other living things in A White Heron seem to have symbolic or even mystical importance. How can such elements be understood and valued in the context of a "realistic" tale? Who attributes symbolic power to these natural presences? What do those values tell us about Sylvia's consciousness?

2. Sylvia is interested in the "young sportsman": he appeals to "the woman's heart, asleep in the child." How does this attraction complicate and enrich the story?

3. Following Sylvia's lead as an interpreter of worldly experience, can we speculate about symbolic or even allegorical echoes in Jewett's tale? Does it make sense to read this story as "about" innocence, awakening sexuality, or the joys and sacrifices that come with interacting with the human world?

Other sites to consult:

• The Sarah Orne Jewett Text Project. A comprehensive site which includes a complete list of Jewett's works and links to numerous online texts and illustrations.
• Interactive hypertext of Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs.