A White Heron According to Brandi Jones
A White Heron
"Half a mile from home, at the farther edge of the woods, where the land was highest, a great pine-tree stood, the last of its generation. Whether it was left for a boundary mark, or for what reason, no one could say; the woodchoppers who had felled its mates were dead and gone long ago, and a whole forest of sturdy trees, pines and oaks and maples, had grown again" (pg 187). This quotation is the first time the readers are introduced to the importance of the large pine tree in the forest. This tree is a place that represents a symbol of life, a concurrence of a child climbing a tree to a person prevailing over obstacles in life.
From the beginning of this story, according to Brandi Jones, it becomes apparent that Sylvia is falling in love with a lost hunter that she had met at the beginning of the story. Despite the fact that love is one of the human mind's most passionate emotions, Sylvia chooses to preserve the forest's inhabitants over possibly having her amorous emotions returned. The author writes about how the dangers of climbing a tree present certain objects that hold her back from obtaining her goals. Moonlight and dark branches are the objects used to lose Sylvia while she makes the comparison of the large pine tree to that of a ladder. A ladder, much like life, has many steps that are needed in order to reach the top. Sylvia’s excitement is shown by the narrator’s direct characterization as in, “tingling, eager” and the hyperbole of, “reaching up, up, to the sky itself,” representing the spirit of mankind in his or her willingness to live and accomplish something. Another simile the author included compares Sylvia’s hands pinching like bird’s claws. This shows her determined spirit raising the ladder towards her opponent, the tree, which represents life itself. As the story progresses, the passage suddenly changes into a difficult period, using the repetition of the words taller and taller associated with the tree while “sharp twigs caught and held her,” a personification representing the toughness of the obstacles that are presented to us throughout of life. Joanne Startrance also mentions that there is a simile comparing twigs scratching her like angry talons, presenting the challenge of coming through an obstacle, similar...