How does the author establish Sylvias unique relationship with the forest in “A White Heron”?
ms-mcgregor Teacher High School – 12th Grade eNotes Editor Jewett begins to establish the girl’s relationship with nature by giving her the name Sylvia, which is taken from the Latin “silva” meaning “wood” or “forest. We are told that she came from a “noisy manufacturing town” and, at the beginning of the story, she is walking “deep into the dark woods” but is not afraid because “her feet were familiar with the path” and it didn’t matter “whether her eyes could see or not”. However, I believe the true bonding between Sylvia and the forest comes just before she is going to show the hunter the nest of the white heron. Sylvia goes out to climb an old oak in order to spot the nest. As she climbs, Jewett personifies all the nature around her. The squirrels “scold” her but the tree “lengthens itself out” as she goes up it. The tree is “amazed” at “this determined spark of human spirit”. Jewett continues the use of personification to draw the tree and forest closer to Sylvia. As Sylvia climbs
