Summary:

     Jewett, a Maine native, developed an appreciation for nature during her childhood which persists throughout her work.  "A White Heron" (1886) is about a girl named Sylvia who moves from a manufacturing town to a farm in the Maine wilderness to help her grandmother. The concept of city vs. forest is recurrent throughout the entire story. Although Sylvia and her grandmother are described to live in “hermitage”, they represent the autonomy and independence of women. The space that Sylvia inhabits is notably feminine, and is invaded -- penetrated, even -- by a hunter/ornithologist in pursuit of a white heron. He offers a handsome $10 reward to find the bird. The shy, quiet, submissive Sylvia seems intent on lending him her insight, but ultimately chooses not to betray the heron, favoring nature over the man who represents the city and civilization she has abandoned.

     "The Storm" (1898) by Kate Chopin features a steamy love affair between Calixta and Alcee Laballiere. The last line of the story suggests that religious, social, and even political consequences are absent from the situation, in which the female characters are given control over their bodies and sexual urges. Strong sexual content and the controversial message prevented the story's publication until 1969, as her novel The Awakening (1899) with equally explicit sexual content received poor reception. 

(word count: 295)

Passages:  

"She was just thinking how long it seemed since she first came to the farm a year ago...the thought of the great red-faced boy who used to chase and frighten her made her hurry along the path to escape from the shadow of the trees.  Suddenly this little woods-girl is horror-stricken to hear a clear whistle not very far away.  Not a bird's whistle, which would have a sort of friendliness, but a boy's whistle, determined, and somewhat aggressive."  (Jewett p. 523, lines 23-30)

• This passages marks the introduction of a male figure in the seemingly feminine, isolated, but independent space.  Sylvia is reminded of the boy from the city, and the mere thought of him still haunts her.  She now lives contently in the serene countryside, but at the instant she hears the boy's whistle, the story foreshadows the male dominance and invasion that is emerging.  The boy's whistle is described as being "determined" and "aggressive", which are common masculine qualities, and the noise disrupts the serenity of the feminine space.  Jewett establishes the woods as feminine where she can "escape" from male dominance and the city. 

• Aside from her name deriving from the Latin root silva, meaning wood or forest, Jewett portrays her intimate relationship with nature and her physical characteristics in becoming one with nature.  It is during this transformation, in which Sylvia is described as an animal interacting with nature, that Sylvia chooses Maine over the hunter, favoring the feminine space and the nature over the city and the masculine influence. This transcendental experience that she has with the tree and the white heron drives her to make her final decision. Although Jewett never acknowledges Sylvia's choice as the "right" choice, she defends Syvia's choice as one with a purpose and reason, and ultimately shows that Sylvia also sacrifices things for the choices that she makes. 

• As the rain stops and everyone is back to their ordinary life, everything is at peace. Contrary to what one would expect, the social, religious, and political consequences are completely absent from the story as everyone is happy in the end.  When the women of the story, Calixta and Clarisse, finally have control of their lives, including the sexual aspects, they are liberated from male dominance and they are able to live happily as women. This story ultimately represents the women's movement towards a feminine independent state as women challenge societal norms and break free from a male dominated society.

Key Terms:

Regionalism- writings that give a particular region its own local color, culture, topography, language/dialect. This was the product of anxiety over the loss of the familiar in a period of rapid change and dislocation, nostalgia for more stable times, and the emergence of a homogenized national society.

Regionalist- an author who created works that are transcended with regionality

     Example: Jewett's treatment of the courageous response of women to frustration and loneliness in the post-Civil  War Years

Boston marriages- shared living quarters and partnership between two women that paralleled ordinary marriage in its intimacy and exclusiveness, but not necessarily sexual

"new woman"- those demanding social, economic, and political equality