Earlier this year I painted my interpretation of certain aspects that caught my attention in the short story "A White Heron" by Sarah Orne Jewett as part of a university assignment.
I am not a trained painter, and what I know about painting is what I have taught myself over the last two decades. I paint because I love it, and enjoy the relaxing process as well as the colorful results. For this project, I wasn't being graded on the artistic talents (I gave a sigh of relief when I heard my professor say this) but the main focus was the interpretation, the thoughts that went into it.
Today I want to share an updated version of that short essay I wrote for my visual interpretation and the artistic process. I share it because as you will read, the story has become one of my favorites, and if you enjoy the essay then it may encourage you to read the story.
Throughout this semester I enjoyed many of the novels and stories discussed, but there was one that I want to dive deeper into its meaning. The literary piece that I have selected for my creative analysis is "A White Heron," by American writer Sarah Orne Jewett. I chose this short story because it has become one of my favorites. It has many layers to analyze, and to even draw our own conclusions in some instances, one being the ending scene, with Sylvia (the protagonist) staying quiet when she is questioned about the whereabouts of the white heron and its nest. It made me wonder at the reasoning that the young girl had, and knowing what I know now as a woman in my twenties, I was able to put myself in Sylvia's shoes. Our upbringings and backgrounds are different--mine and that of the fictional protagonist--but I understood her actions.
In the last scene of "A White Heron" Sylvia's grandma and the young hunter realize that Sylvia knows where the nest of the elusive bird is located and insist that she tell them. After days of the young man staying with the women as he hunted in the forest near their home, Sylvia had grown to learn what his actions really consisted of. The young man interrogated Sylvia, pressing for the location of the animal that had been slipping from his fingers. For him, shooting the bird meant taking home a trophy of his conquest during the hunting trip. Then the grandmother makes her motives known (to the reader) when she asks Sylvia to give them the location of the heron's nest; if the man can find the bird, the grandmother (and Sylvia, as the woman was raising the girl) was going to get paid for helping the young man. Despite the pressure of letting down her grandmother and the young hunter, Sylvia decides not to betray the animal that revealed its location to her.
The message that I received from that last scene is what I painted for this project. I decided to take it further from what was narrated in the story, depicting the hunter's presence in a manner that can be described as full-circle and the development that Sylvia had.
I initially wanted the canvas to display both Sylvia and the white heron, but after further consideration I took a different approach. Instead, in the darkened sky with hints of morning sunshine, Sylvia's change in the story is represented through a white girl flying, just as if she were a bird. Sylvia is also, in a figurative way, transformed into nature because she did not betray the natural world that surrounded her and provided a home beyond the walls of her house.
By painting Sylvia in the sky, I wanted her to be close to the treetops, where she had climbed earlier that morning and found the nest of the white heron. It was a representation of the trees and the birds having fully accepted her after she faced a trial--giving up the location of what she admires in exchange for money, and the young crush that made her want to valuable to the young hunter. She is a human, but after silently declaring where her loyalty lies, it is as if she had become one with the bird.
Meanwhile, the young hunter is almost in the opposite corner of the canvas. I wanted him to represent the opposing view to that of Sylvia. Despite both being out in nature, his presence there is for his own interest and benefit, with his actions taking life away from the ecosystem that he claims to enjoy. The color and design that I chose for him is that of a shadow because I thought it fits his character well. He first entered the story as an entity that scared Sylvia. She could only hear his whistling that day in the forest, as he was likely hunting and hiding somewhere until he saw the young girl. Then, when he leaves shortly after realizing that Sylvia was not going to reveal the location of the white heron's nest, he becomes a shadow in Sylvia's life. The shadow that represents the hunter is moving along the path, away from the house, which is a bigger focus in the painting, representing a safe space for Sylvia. Additionally, emerging from the horizon we have the sun, making the hunter of the shadow seem almost insignificant and blurry. I wanted this to represent the awakening that Sylvia had.
Throughout the story, Sylvia's life was changed with the awakening of meeting a handsome young man that could provide her with attention that was new to her (hence the previous mention of the small crush she had on him), and with the money that he offered if he was able to find the white heron. Neither of these concepts seemed to be genuine, considering that as the story progressed, the real personality of the hunter was shown through his actions and dialogue. As a reader, I noticed that, and I know that Sylvia's character may not have realized that until after the man left. At the end, instead of giving in to the temptations of wanting attention from a person that did not respect nature, and refusing to betray what she has learned to love, Sylvia chooses nature, inherently choosing herself and her own happiness.
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| The trees here grow wild, just like my imagination. |
If you have read "A White Heron" I'd love to know your interpretation of the entire story, or of details of the story. You know I love a good literary discussion.
