The Conception of Nature and i
The Conception of Nature and its Relationship to Genderin S.O. Jewett^ҳ story "A White Heron.""Nature, in the common sense, refers to the essences unchanged by man^ÞFrom the very first steps of the new settlers on the American continent, its uncivilized nature, full of smell of the forests, of freshness of the air, and of almost prelapsarian variety of flora and fauna, came to be associated with unlimited wilderness. However, under the vigorous attack of developing civilization the untouched virginity of the New World soon began to recede, irretrievably losing its wild independent beauty. For a great number of American writers this confrontation of nature with civilization became a theme for the never-ending discussion. The short story of an American writer regionalist Sarah Orne Jewett, "A White Heron", is one of the works written on this touching American theme. In this story the author presents the conflict by juxtaposing a little country-girl Sylvia, who lives in harmony with nature, to the bird-hunter from a town. She does so through identification of a girl with nature and boys ^ with civilization. While the girl stands for t!he innocent femininity of natural wo
With all this, the authorsattempt is to bewail the simplicity of the rosy past, theinnocence of the uncivilized forests, and the beauty offriendship of humans with nature which irretrievably flow awaythrough the greedy fingers of civilization. 202): shefeels that she would never want to go back home. It is alsoimportant to note that as a female she is identical with Nature, whichin the American literature is usually "spelled with a capital andreferred to as feminine" (Miller, p. It is in Perry Miller^swork Errand into the Wilderness where we find the answer to thisimpasse. Sylvia, who before her coming to the countrylived in a "crowded manufacturing town" (WH, p. He is alsodescribed in terms of danger and animosity: "the great red-faced boywho used to chase and frighten her" (WH, p. The reader is immediately charmed and has no choice but to proceed, to walk further, among the trees, until he meets a little girl, walking by the forest path together with her "plodding" (WH, p. 201), the girl, though very poor, does not sell himthe bird^s secret.
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Acceptance Essays
