A Disaster: Essay 1
This is my worst and least favorite essay. I thought that what I was trying to convey was coming out but apparently i didn't do a very good job. I would definitly not think about the story as hard as I was. I would try to look at it the way that Sylvia would. This is the revised version- minus the references to abused women- which was the subject that was way off base to compare to this story.
Decisions
In “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett we meet a young lady who has to make a decision as to whether or not she will reveal the location of a local heron to a bird hunter, or keep the location a secret and not receive the large reward she has been promised. This decision is one that takes time to reach, but once she made it, it “made all the difference” (Frost 1061).
Sylvia is a small girl who goes out every night to retrieve the family cow. She takes her time and enjoys her walk home. One day she meets a young man who is an avid bird hunter and desperately wants to find a sly heron. He hasn’t been able to locate the bird since he spotted it, but Sylvia has seen the bird several times. She had suspicions about the hunter but she keeps them to herself because the stranger interests her.
She follows the young man throughout the following day as if she was pondering nothing at all. Sylvia follows behind the hunter and watches to see how he reacts to and treats the birds, which is what a battered woman does once she starts to think about leaving her abuser. Sylvia doesn’t understand why or how the hunter can hurt and kill the things that he cares so much about. The hunter even tries to entice Sylvia with a reward, something a lot of batterers do to their victims, in order to get the outcome that he desires.
Sylvia sees the perks to taking this reward but is still hesitant about the hunter. She knows that it would be easier to take the money and tell the hunter where the bird is, just like the victim may think that the easier “road” would be to stay in her situation. She wants to make sure that she makes the right decision, so she takes her time and looks at all the aspects of the situation that she is in. The battered victim may look for ways and resources that could help her get out or look for reasons that she should stay, but Sylvia went to see the heron.
Sylvia climbs a large tree to locate the bird in the silence of the night. She wants to locate the bird in order to give its location away or find a reason not to keep her secret. She spies it and together they watch the sunrise. Sylvia realizes that the life of the heron is more important than the money that the hunter is willing to give her. Sylvia and the victims that leave decided that “the road less traveled” (Frost 1061) is the better route to take than the road highly traveled.
Sylvia takes the route that most people would have avoided. She thought about what the heron meant to life as a whole and how they connected that morning watching the sunrise together. She felt a connection with it and didn’t want that connection to be broken for a small monetary reward. For Sylvia, allowing the hunter to leave without telling him where the heron resided was her way of allowing herself to live without the guilt and loss of a loved one: the heron.
Works Cited
Frost, Robert. The Road Not Taken. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 5th ed. Vol. D. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. 1061. Jewett, Sarah Orne.
A White Heron. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 5th ed. Vol. C. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. 695-701.
Decisions
In “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett we meet a young lady who has to make a decision as to whether or not she will reveal the location of a local heron to a bird hunter, or keep the location a secret and not receive the large reward she has been promised. This decision is one that takes time to reach, but once she made it, it “made all the difference” (Frost 1061).
Sylvia is a small girl who goes out every night to retrieve the family cow. She takes her time and enjoys her walk home. One day she meets a young man who is an avid bird hunter and desperately wants to find a sly heron. He hasn’t been able to locate the bird since he spotted it, but Sylvia has seen the bird several times. She had suspicions about the hunter but she keeps them to herself because the stranger interests her.
She follows the young man throughout the following day as if she was pondering nothing at all. Sylvia follows behind the hunter and watches to see how he reacts to and treats the birds, which is what a battered woman does once she starts to think about leaving her abuser. Sylvia doesn’t understand why or how the hunter can hurt and kill the things that he cares so much about. The hunter even tries to entice Sylvia with a reward, something a lot of batterers do to their victims, in order to get the outcome that he desires.
Sylvia sees the perks to taking this reward but is still hesitant about the hunter. She knows that it would be easier to take the money and tell the hunter where the bird is, just like the victim may think that the easier “road” would be to stay in her situation. She wants to make sure that she makes the right decision, so she takes her time and looks at all the aspects of the situation that she is in. The battered victim may look for ways and resources that could help her get out or look for reasons that she should stay, but Sylvia went to see the heron.
Sylvia climbs a large tree to locate the bird in the silence of the night. She wants to locate the bird in order to give its location away or find a reason not to keep her secret. She spies it and together they watch the sunrise. Sylvia realizes that the life of the heron is more important than the money that the hunter is willing to give her. Sylvia and the victims that leave decided that “the road less traveled” (Frost 1061) is the better route to take than the road highly traveled.
Sylvia takes the route that most people would have avoided. She thought about what the heron meant to life as a whole and how they connected that morning watching the sunrise together. She felt a connection with it and didn’t want that connection to be broken for a small monetary reward. For Sylvia, allowing the hunter to leave without telling him where the heron resided was her way of allowing herself to live without the guilt and loss of a loved one: the heron.
Works Cited
Frost, Robert. The Road Not Taken. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 5th ed. Vol. D. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. 1061. Jewett, Sarah Orne.
A White Heron. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 5th ed. Vol. C. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. 695-701.
posted by shayle at 2:20 PM
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