Summary
In the 19th century, magazines were the major vehicles of Regionalism. Magazines of this time consisted of mainly woman authors because stand-alone publishing was not common for women at the time. Women were interested in the themes of Regionalism, women's issues and the status of women. To illustrate the themes of regionalism and the status of women in society, our class first discussed Sarah Orne Jewett's "A White Heron". The three female characters (Sylvia, the grandmother and the cow, Mistress Moolly) get along quite well without any men to protect and provide for them. We also discussed the idea that the only male figure present throughout the story (the sportsman) is a disruptive, destructive force--not the ordered, rational "maleness" of convention. Obviously, symobols such as these throught "A White Heron" that women can hold their own in a world that seems to center around men. That said, it is also important to recognize the contrasting male character as representative temptation. The hunter is seen as an intruder within the female landscape, further emphasizing the split between a woman and a man's world.
We also talked about the regionalist elements of "The White Heron" as a whole. Things such as the attention to landscape, the specific dialect, and feelings of nostalgia help to qualify the short story as regionalism. Regionalist fiction preserves dialects and oral traditions, which are in an almost constant state of flux, like all living things. So while it is helpful on the one hand to capture and store these things, what is captured is fixed in an unnatural way--not unlike the birds that the hunter kills, stuffs, and puts on display.
It should also be recognized that the main character, Sylvia, seems to be representative as connected with nature. There is the relationship between her name and the word silvan, which means forest, and how that underscores her kinship with the animals and comfort in the forest. It seems as if Sylvia is a part of nature itself. She thrives in the country rather than the city and this new "frontier" seems to be a female space.
We also took notice of the interesting shift in the narrators voice throughout the story. We discussed that this shift could be a refusal of a masculan voice in story telling or perhaps something else.
Word Count: 387
Passages
"Everybody said that it was a good change for a little maid who had tried to grow for eight years in a crowded manufacturing town, but, as for Sylvia herself, it seemed as if she never had been alive at all before she came to live at the farm. She thought often with wistful compassion of wretched geranium that belonged to a town neighbor." (pg. 522)
This passage, like the one in which Sylvia climbs the tree, likens Sylvia to a wild creature and suggests that had Sylvia remained in the city, she would not have flourished as she does in the rural setting of the story. This pro-pastoral/anti-city sentiment has Regionalism written all over it. It's a commemoration of a way of life supposedly on the way out, one in which (wo)man was in tune with nature. (And one that probably never really existed.)
"...the thought of the great red-faced boy who used to chase and frighten her made her hurry along the path to escape the shadow of the trees." (523)
This passage contributes to the idea that male forces are disruptive and negative in the story.
"'Sylvia takes after him,' the grandmother continued affectionately, after a minute's pause. 'There ain't a foot o' ground she don't know her way over, and the wild creaturs counts her one o' themselves. Squer'ls she'll tame to come an' feed right out o' her hands, and all sorts o' birds. Last winter she got the jay-birds to bangeing here, and I believe she'd 'a' scanted herself of her own meals to have plenty to throw out amongst 'em." (524)
This passage is an excellent example of how well Sylvia is connected to nature. She nourishes nature and in return nature responds well to her. Her overall connection to nature is important to the story because that connection is what causes Sylvia to keep the secret of the white heron. Jewett's use of local dialect in the grandmother's speech is also an indicator of regionalism.
“No, she must keep her silence. What is it that suddenly forbids her and makes her dumb?” (pg. 528)
Jewett is enforcing another idea of Regionalism-preservation. Sylvia has experienced firsthand the glorious beauty of nature and the white heron causing her to refuse to share it with the hunter. He would kill the heron, removing it from the great pine tree.
Key Terms
Regionalism-AKA local color writing. It is often characterized by dialect, oral traditions and focuses on a particular area.