Any type of literary work can contain secret messages throughout the story, and it’s up to the reader to analyze and figure these hidden messages out. Some stories contain themes that are obvious, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have other underlying themes. If the reader reads a literary piece more than once, then they’re apt to pick up much more than when they read it first. In Sarah Ornes Jewetts’, A White Heron, it sounds like a simple story at first, but once it’s analyzed and picked apart, there are many more aspects to the story that are revealed. This story is about an innocent, naïve girl named Sylvia who matures throughout the story and realizes the importance of keeping the secret of the white heron.

When the reader first starts to read A White Heron, it sounds like a simple story about a young, curious girl living with her grandmother on a farm, and a bird hunter who is looking for a heron that the young girl has seen before. This hunter is willing to pay anyone who shows him where the heron is located ten dollars, because the Heron is a very valuable bird that usually isn’t found in that climate. The little girl locates the nest of the herr

Sylvia is also very wary of the strange hunter when she has her first encounter with him. He explains how he is hunting the herring, and just needs a place to stay for the night so Sylvia decides to bring him back to the house. At first, Sylvia was terrified of this tall, strange man, but as time progresses, she starts to like him. “The next day the young sportsman hovered about the woods, and Sylvia kept him company, having lost her first fear of the friendly lad, who proved to be most kind and sympathetic,” (Jewett, 187). It’s ironic, because at first Sylvia is running away from the hunter, and later on in the story she’s following him, which is another sign of maturity. “They share one common interest: birds. Even though the hunter and Sylvia share this interest, their intentions with this interest are very different. Sylvia enjoys listening to the birds and enjoying them for the creatures they are. On the contrary, the hunter enjoys the birds solely for killing and stuffing them for money.

Throughout Jewett’s A White Heron, young Sylvia proved to be much more intelligent and mature than the average nine year old girl. In the beginning of the story, she had a vivid imagination and was oblivious to the world that surrounded her. By the end of the story Sylvia is aware of the opportunities the world can offer her, and how big the world actually is. Sylvia also started to construct morals which she will follow for the rest of her life. For example, she decided against giving up the heron’s life for money. Sylvia realizes that pure life is more important than money. The short s

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