In a portion of "a white Heron", Jewett describes Sylvia’s journey through the woods. For Sylvia, only a young girl, this exploration of the land is quite an adventure for her

Essay #1

In a portion of “A White Heron”, Jewett describes Sylvia’s journey through the woods.  For Sylvia, only a young girl, this exploration of the land is quite an adventure for her.  As a write, it is Jewett’s duty to capture the experience Sylvia had.  Jewett dramatizes the young heroine’s adventure by incorporating imagery and effective diction in the text.

                The author uses imagery to make Sylvia’s adventure very detailed.  By describing the scenes Sylvia sees, Jewett makes the story more realistic for the audience.  Jewett writes, “ sun , there was the sea with the dawning sun making a gold dazzle over it, and toward that glorious east flew two hawks with slow-moving pinions.”  Jewett creates the image of the seascape to help the readers become part of the story.  She also writes, “where she was almost lost among the dark branches and green leaves heavy with dew: a bird fluttered off its nest, and a red squirrel ran to and fro and scolded pettishly at the harmless housebreaker.” Again, Jewett uses description to paint pictures for the reader about Sylvia’s adventure.  The detailed imagery makes the young girl’s adventure more elaborate.

                Along with imagery, Jewett utilizes diction to dramatize the story. Her choice of words embellishes the adventure.  She writes, “She crept out along the swaying oak limb at last, and took the daring step across into the old pine tree.” The words “crept”, “swaying”, and “daring” add excitement to the event.  By using these words, Jewett presents the risk Sylvia is taking by climbing the oak tree.  Jewett continues to write, “Sylvia’s face was like a pale star, if one had seen it from the ground, when the last thorny bough was past, and she stood trembling and tired but wholly triumphant, high in the tree-top. “  The words “pale star”, “trembling”, “tired”, and “wholly triumphant” accentuate the struggle Sylvia endured on her adventure, as well as the victory she achieved from it.  Jewett’s diction worked exceptionally to enhance Sylvia’s adventure.

     Jewett took a narration of Sylvia’s exploration and made it more dramatic by adding in imagery and using diction to her advantage.  The imagery built the setting of the adventure and Jewett’s diction adds detail to the character’s actions. While she could’ve just gave the narration with the basic facts and events, Jewett makes the narration more intriguing to the reader.  Imagery and diction made the young heroine's adventure dramatized.

Essay #2

      A child’s climbing of a great pine tree is narrated in this passage from “A White Heron,” emphasizing both her determination to achieve this goal and her awe upon completing it. Sylvia is especially awed by the tree itself and the perspective she gains from it, as her eyes are opened to a richer view of her world than possible from the ground. Important in forming this dramatization of the young heroine’s adventure are techniques such as imagery and diction, as well as a strong focus towards Sylvia’s point of view, which can be summed up by the closing phrase: “truly it was a vast and awesome world.”

                The euphonious rhythm and humbled tone of the passage is created, in part, by the author’s choice of diction. It is evident from the author’s tendency to use words and phrases reflective of someone enamored by their surroundings that this is how she means to convey Sylvia’s experience. The scene is described using language that most people would understand, yet would not typically use; the diction is not just averagely positive, but overflowing with emotional adjectives, verbs and sentences. It is clearly not just “nice outside” to Sylvia, the climb is not just “difficult but rewarding.” Rather, “the sharp dry twigs caught and held her and scratched her like angry talons,” and “the dawning sun [makes] a golden dazzle over [the sea.]” Clearly, though, Sylvia could not have described her experience so eloquently. The intelligent, mature diction which portrays intense emotion implies that Sylvia was at a stage in her life when she could not herself describe her inward experiences.

            To connect the higher-level diction with Sylvia’s own thoughts and feelings, the narrator utilizes a third-person point of view that is somewhat omniscient. While what is going through Sylvia’s mind is not given word-for-word, it is paid close attention to and prevalent throughout the passage.  In some places this attention to Sylvia’s viewpoint narrates the action, her thoughts woven into the descriptions of what she’s doing. A good example of this is “She crept out along the swaying oak limb at least, and took the daring step across into the old pine-tree. The way was harder than she thought; she must reach fast and hold fast…” These looks into Sylvia’s mind also give readers perspective: “harder than she thought” implies she has planned this venture, “she had always believed that whoever climbed to the top of it could see the ocean” proving this. The insight into Sylvia’s perspective not only heightens the drama of the scene as it gives it more significance, but it gives readers a better understanding of what impact it had on her, “trembling and tired but wholly triumphant.”

Essay #3

“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.” (Line 1-3)This sentence starts off the passage which is taken from Sarah Orne Jewett’s A White Heron. As you can see from the sentence, Jewett uses many different types of literary elements, or techniques, to help dramatize her writing and to specifically dramatize the young heroin, Sylvia, who we meet at the beginning of Line 10, and the adventure she takes. Although Jewett does use many different types of techniques in her writing to help dramatize Sylvia and her adventure, three key techniques she uses are diction and imagery.

     “There was the huge tree asleep yet in the paling moonlight, and the small and silly Sylvia began with utmost bravery to mount to the top of it, with tingling, eager blood coursing the channels of her whole frame, with her bare feet and fingers, that pinched and held like bird’s claws to the monstrous ladder reaching up, up, almost to the sky itself.” (Line 16-23) The passage is a perfect example of how Jewett uses diction to help dramatize Sylvia. Diction is the art of word choice, and is a key facet in many author’s writing. In Jewett’s writing, you can clearly see diction in the lines above. Lines such as “Utmost Bravery” and “Blood Coursing the Channels” show strong, dramatic emotion that help describe Sylvia. You can also see diction in the words “monstrous” and “paling moonlight”. These lines do not describe Sylvia herself, but instead depict her surroundings. Both of these examples help dramatize the adventure itself, which is what the author’s main goal is. Diction is a necessity when it comes to dramatization of writing, but diction itself can lead into the bigger literary element imagery.

     “She crept out along the swaying oak limb at last, and took the daring step across in the old pine-tree. The way was harder than she thought, she must reach far and hold fast, the sharp dry twigs caught and held her and scratched her like angry talons,…” (Line 34-38) Imagery is a key technique Jewett uses to help dramatize Sylvia’s adventure. Imagery is the element of “painting a picture” inside the audience head. You can clearly see this in Jewett’s writing, such as in the passage above. With words such as “Crept out” and “sharp dry twigs” Jewett can put the image on the paper into the audience’s head. You can see in your mind Sylvia, jumping from tree to tree, in a very passive, shy form. She is scared and frightened to fall, and yet you can see the determination on her face to reach the top. This scene I depicted is also one of the more dramatic scenes in Jewett’s writing, and she does an excellent job in displaying this dramatic emotion through imagery.

     “Westward, the woodlands and farms reached miles and miles into the distance; here and there were church steeples, and white villages; truly it was a vast and awesome world.” (Line 66-69) This final sentence ends Jewett’s writing, and she ends by using both the techniques she has relied on to help dramatize Sylvia’s writing, diction and imagery. These techniques work hand in hand to help create a better, unified, more emotional piece of writing. Jewett understands this, and uses these techniques to help develop a truly dramatic form of the adventure of Sylvia.  

 

Essay #4

The world is a vast and magical place and is filled with beautiful scenery and wondrous objects. In this passage, the main character Sylvia, takes the adventure of climbing one of those beautiful objects herself; a towering pine tree. While reading this passage, the audience is given a dramatic sense of danger and peril. Throughout the reading, the author implements strong diction and the use of imagery to dramatize Sylvia’s great adventure.

                In the passage, the author, Sarah Orne Jewett, brings across a dramatic tone to Sylvia’s climb. She was able to do this by using strong diction throughout the whole. One instance comes when Sylvia begins her ascension of the pine tree. “She crept out along the swaying oak limb at last, and took the daring step across into the old pine tree. The way was harder than she thought; she must reach far and hold fast, the sharp dry twigs caught and held her and scratched her like angry talons, the pitch made her thin little fingers clumsy and stiff as she went round and round the tree’s great stem.” This excerpt includes a great deal of diction, such as ‘scratched’, ‘talons’, and ‘crept’. This diction clearly brings across the feeling that she was in danger and could be injured and possibly fall from the tree at any moment. Thus, a dramatic tone is brought to the audience.

                In her passage, along with a strong use of diction, the author also creates a dramatic atmosphere by heavily implementing imagery into the text. In the beginning of her writing, the author uses imagery to paint a picture of the vast landscape surrounding the tree that Sylvia is preparing to climb. “…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. But the stately head of this old pine towered above them all and made a landmark for sea and shore miles and miles away. … There was the huge tree asleep yet in the paling moonlight, and small and silly Sylvia began with the utmost bravery to mount to the top of it…” This use of imagery provides a lot of information to the reader. To begin, we are able to envision the world surrounding Sylvia and the pine tree. However, we are also able to imagine the size and magnitude of the pine tree. Knowing that this tree was the tallest one that Sylvia knew of and that it was visible from sea delivered a sense of risk and urgency to the situation. By doing this, the author was successful in bringing across a dramatic aspect to the story.

                While climbing the great pine tree, Sylvia is often thought to be in a very dangerous and dramatic situation. This is because there is a wonderful use of both diction and imagery within the text, set forth by the author, Sarah Orne Jewett.

Essay # 5

 Dramatizing a piece of literature is done for several reasons.  It is mostly practiced for a certain effect on an audience.  It takes a small idea from a piece of literature and blows it up.  Dramatization is one technique used by authors to make their point or argument clear.  If an author can effectively describe and spell out one specific thing in their writing, then their audience is more than likely to be persuaded.  In the text from “A White Heron”, dramatization plays a huge role in the overall point of the piece.  Jewett combines vivid imagery with a slow paced narration to dramatize Sylvia’s invigorating climb of the old pine-tree.

                Jewett inserts descriptive words to create pictures that capture the attention of her audience.  She uses this type of enchanting imagery that centers around her focal point of Sylvia’s great tree-climbing adventure.  In line 50, Jewett says, “More than all the hawks, and bats, and moths, and even the sweet-voiced thrushes, was the brave, beating heart of the solitary gray-eyed child.”  She uses this picture to show how Sylvia stood out from the other common objects surrounding the tree.  Jewett was able to do this by pointing out other features of the forest first then describing the girl that has more courage than all of them.  The author does this throughout the piece to make her main point bold without coming out and saying exactly what she means.  She is able to say more with her imagery than with words.

                The pace of this passage is another element that sets it apart from other pieces of literature.  The pace is the time at which an author takes to develop her point throughout a story or other work.  In Jewett’s case, she took a story that would take maybe a paragraph to explain and extends it into five by slowing her pace.  She does this by freezing every small moment and detail.  One instance of this is when Jewett describes the seconds before Sylvia is about to mount the trunk of the tree.  The author pauses to discuss her surroundings by saying, “…a bird fluttered off its nest, and a red squirrel ran to and fro and scolded pettishly at the harmless housebreaker.”  It is evident that this small detail is not needed to tell the story.  However, Jewett adds this to slow the pace and dramatize the piece.  It puts focus on how important and symbolic climbing the tree is, even to the surrounding environment.  When an author adds these unnecessary, yet effective pauses, he or she makes the story flow together seamlessly.

                  “Their gray feathers were as soft as moths; they seemed only a little way from the tree, and Sylvia felt as if she too could go flying away among the clouds.”  Jewett appeals to her audience’s senses by describing the location and feel of the hawks that were flying around the forest.  She also takes the time to discuss the feeling that Sylvia received from accomplishing the obstacle of climbing the tree.  Both of these elements add to the overall quality of the passage by making it come alive.  Jewett makes readers feels as if they are standing with Sylvia on that top branch, taking in the experience.  The fact that the author expanded the basic idea of climbing a tree to telling a story of an adventurous and triumphant hike, she made it so readers were not only with Sylvia at the end of her journey, but they were with her every step of the way.  Both of these dramatic literary techniques help demonstrate Sylvia’s revitalizing journey.    

Essay # 6

The imaginary powers of a child cannot be stressed enough. A child can change things within his or her own mind to make the world appear better and more meaningful. This imaginary world begins to blend with the real world until it may become difficult to tell the two apart. In the excerpt given from “A White Heron”, the child Sylvia is portrayed as being lost in this in-between world as she climbs the great oak tree. To Sylvia the simple act of climbing a large tree becomes an adventure. The writer stresses portrays this small scene just as a child would; with this tree being more important than it probably actually is. In the end the goal of the writer was to create a dramatic new adventure for the girl to experience. In order to dramatize Sylvia’s adventure the author uses very adjective focused diction, clear and easy to see imagery, and a point of view is similar to the way that Sylvia may see herself.

            Using strong diction helps to convey the impact this adventure has on Sylvia. Word choice is a key part of every piece of writing. In this case the diction is used to show just how real everything appears to be not only to the reader but also how it felt to Sylvia. While the dramatization of the adventure is made up by the author, by using strong descriptive words it may appear real to readers. An example is found in lines 63-64 when describing eagles in the distance, “Their gray feathers were as soft as moths, they seemed only a little away, Sylvia felt as if she too could go flying away among the clouds.” From a word choice standpoint the way that the eagle’s feathers are described is to an extent the Sylvia could not have known. Clearly she couldn’t reach out an touch them. By using diction the description of the feathers appears to be real, however from a logical standpoint this fact is made up to dramatize her journey up the tree. Diction blends together the real and imaginary worlds as seen by Sylvia. This is not the only tool used by the author to emphasis how this adventure felt to her.

            Another literary technique used is clear imagery. To a level diction and imagery both go together.  Taking this into account means that this excerpt has a high amount of imagery. For example, on lines 23-25, “Where she was almost lost among the dark branches and the green leaves heavy and wet with dew.” Lines like this make it very easy to see this very scene happening right before your very eyes. The images make readers feel that they are in the same area seemingly observing Sylvia in her attempts to climb the great oak tree. Because the images appear so strongly, it is easy to over dramatize her adventure up to the tree top from what it really was. This was precisely how the author was trying to use imagery to her advantage in the writing of this piece to blur the line between the real and imaginary worlds. In the same way that diction relates to imagery, imagery is only interpreted by point of view.

            The author uses point of view to cast the reader as an observer to Sylvia’s adventure. By making the reader an observer, the author is attempting to place them in Sylvia’s imaginary world. Once inside this world it becomes hard to see what was really happening. Every one of Sylvia’s actions can be looked at in great detail from the perspective of an onlooker. As such the whole piece can come together and be interpreted in a way that is different from what would be seen from only the girl’s perspective. Readers become stuck in the imaginary world. Because anyone attempting to read this piece is stuck in the imaginary world because of the point of view, all the details are seen as real and can be taken at face value. This creates strong emphasis on how important this innocent tree climb must be. The point of view connects everything together in itself to be understood by readers.

            The author uses several different techniques like diction, imagery, and point of view to completely immerse the reader in Sylvia’s dramatic adventure. By using all of these the reader can become lost in the imaginary world and become less connected to the real one. By being placed in this world things may not always be as they seem, and her adventure becomes many times more dramatic than it would normally be.

Essay # 7

The most rewarding experiences are often some of the most challenging to make it through. In Sarah Orne Jewett’s “A White Heron,” this idea is evident through the difficult, yet gratifying experience the protagonist Sylvia undergoes. Jewett is able to completely capture her audience’s attention through imagery exemplified by personification and point of view referenced through simile.

            The voyage that Sylvia embarks upon becomes extremely real to the reader because of the masterful use of imagery supplied by personification. Young Sylvia is in a terrain “half a mile from home,” because she desires to “see the ocean.” The source that will allow her to accomplish such a daunting task is the very real tree. Here Jewett uses the senses, the idea of imagery, found in personification to show the heroine’s task. “There was the huge tree asleep yet in the paling moonlight, and small and silly Sylvia began with utmost bravery to mount to the top of it, with tingling, eager blood.” This is the exposition of her journey; the audience is introduced to the personified tree, moonlight, and even the protagonist’s blood in order to feel involved with the course the story will take. Because this tool functions exceptionally well at this point, the author wisely continues to personify throughout the tale. “The old pine tree must have loved his new dependent…And the tree stood still and held away the winds that June morning.” This comes right after the climax, purposefully continuing the connection to the audience through the powerful imagery found in personification. The earlier personification becomes extremely relevant when brought up again, almost like an extended metaphor.

            Though Jewett does continue the use of the personified tree, she does not limit herself to one such tool for showing the heroine’s acts. The use of similes further strengthens the perspective of Sylvia and adds to the formal and flowing diction of the piece by clearly showing the continuance of the tale through the protagonist’s distinct point of view. “The sharp dry twigs caught and held her and scratched her like angry talons” is found at the climax of the story. This simile is able to reveal Sylvia’s perspective of her battle. It was indeed “harder than she thought” as the preceding quotation revealed. The daunting ideal that Sylvia was experiencing is expressed once again with a simile: “it was like a great main-mast to the voyaging earth.”The purpose of using the tool of simile was to allow the reader to view the situation from Sylvia’s point of view. The author wanted to connect the audience to the protagonist, and is able to do so through the powerful use of simile. The last influential example of simile came at the start of the last paragraph, to attempt to provide closure on the conclusion of the tale. “Sylvia’s face was like a pale star,” Jewett says. Through this quote the tale comes full circle. The use of personification earlier is recalled by the observant reader, as her intent was to see the ocean from high up in the trees. She has surpassed her goal, reaching to the skies, as “wholly triumphant” as any heroine could be.

            In order to captivate her audience, Sarah Orne Jewett used personification to portray the senses; the successful use of imagery. Being the rhetorical strategy master that she is, Jewett also related an important inside point of view with her brilliant application of simile at several crucial points in the plot. From direct partnership of these two tools with imagery and point of view, Sylvia is created into a heroic protagonist, who truly learned the most difficult way to overcome the obstacles that she faced.

Essay #8

When I was seven my family moved to a suburb of Detroit, there our new house sat on the edge of a steep wooded hill leading to a river. Because of my closeness to it, I developed a fascination for the wildlife and nature around my house. Climbing trees was an entertaining endeavor that I did repetitively. I thought of myself as a tree climbing “machine” of sorts , almost heroic in my daring to climb trees. A text by Sarah Orne Jewett also dramatizes climbing trees, to something in an epic novel. Through diction, back story, and imagery she establishes a dramatic aura to the young heroine climbing trees.

 

Diction was used to accentuate the events occurring in the passage. At many points the author chose specific words to push what they wanted in terms of portrayed ideas. This use of word choice got the author’s text to attain a more epic sense of adventure. In line 17 it states “… silly Sylvia began with utmost bravery to mount to the top of it, with tingling, eager blood coursing through the channels of her entire frame.” Jewett emplaced words and phrases such as “Utmost bravery” and “…eager blood coursing through her entire frame” to make the act of climbing the (in the words of line 2) “… great pine…” an act of pure courage. Diction enabled the author to put strategically place words to get her desired effect.

 

Building on top of diction to solidify the passage, back story was utilized to establish a fuller sense of purpose. The emplacement of subtle bits of objectives, and history to the tree made the young heroine’s act seem extremely brave. On line 7 the passage states “…the stately head of this old pine towered above them all” (referring to the other trees of the forest) it also says on line 8 that the old pine “…made a landmark for sea and shore miles and miles.” Through a little bit of back story the setting of the story is complete. The tree was put in place to be the oldest most grand pine in the forest, and this by no means is a small act for our young heroine to endeavor upon in climbing. This makes the passage have a sense of direction, rathe then our main character choosing a random tree in the forest, she chose the largest, oldest pine in the forest. The author quickly put into play elements of back story to make the heroine’s climb have a sense of purpose.

 

Finally, completing the rhetorical structure, imagery refined the passage to the ideas, and events which the author wanted to display. Imagery was used to affect each of individual events of this passage to mold them the way Jewett wanted them to be. On line 55, after Sylvia reaches the top of the pine, the passage says “Sylvia’s face was like a pale star, if one had seen it from the ground, when the last thorny bough was past and she stood trembling and tired but wholly triumphant, high in the tree top.” Sylvia’s accomplishment is affected by imagery in phrases from this passage such as “she stood trembling and tired but wholly triumphant…” alluding to a runner after a race, tired, but accomplished. Exhausted but victorious Sylvia’s act itself is described on line 34, “She crept out along the swaying oak limb at last, and took the daring step across the old pine tree.” In this passage her act seems daring, and courageous. The author used imagery in this text to absorb the audience into the passage, and accentuate the unfolding events.

 

Sarah Orne Jewett was a master of rhetorical strategies to shape her writing to what she wanted it to be, and with those three techniques of diction, back story, and imagery, she dramatized the story of “Sylvia” climbing a pine tree.