Traditionally women who practice a certain art have struggled in their lives and experienced conflict between their hopes to become professional and between the traditional roles that would often hold them back. In literature some of these women's stories are like fairy tales, myths, or fantasies come true. In Sarah Orne Jewett's "A White Heron," Sylvia's fairy tale life shows the artistic tendencies waiting to come out in a young child. A.S. Byatt's "Art Work" introduces the fantasy come true story of a struggling artist who finally gets her break and the life of the young Mrs. Gordins in Gilman' "Making A Change" is a fantasy come true as well. The women in these stories all face challenges and are forced to make decisions concerning their art.
             In a "White Heron" Sylvia is first introduced as a shy girl who was "afraid of folks." She was happy on her own in the woods with nature. Much like a fairy tale Sylvia was taken out of her hard life in the city and brought to the country by her grandmother. Sylvia was a child of the woods and her grandmother described her as one with the animals. Much like a fairy tale the strange hunter comes into Sylvia's life and although she is scared at first she learns that he means her no harm. However she does learn of his occupation and is not at ease with it at all. This man represents everything that is foreign to Sylvia and perhaps all of the things she is trying to forget from her life in the city. He brings about the ideas of death and technology with the use of his guns, as well as materialism by offering money for the white heron he is looking for. Sylvia knows of the white heron and feels connected to it and she will not give up its location to the ornithologist. Sylvia makes her final decision after seeing the white heron with his mate and she knows she will not reveal its whereabouts to the man. For Sylvia ...