The White Heron symbolises Sylvia's, the central character in the story's, loneliness and her freedom or the need to escape amongst other themes. The narrator employs a very rich combination of concrete imagery and symbolism in the form of scenic description, seasonal metaphors and symbolisation of animals to enrich the plot and our understanding of the central character. .
The White Heron symbolises Sylvia's loneliness by being a "solemn" creature itself. It shares her moment of triumph, her experience of the real world thus symbolising both her need for freedom and attainment of that freedom. Through this sharing, the bird forms a bond with Sylvia leading to the girl's reluctance to give away the heron's life by telling its whereabouts to the young man. The narrator uses descriptive concrete imagery and symbolism to help the reader in understanding the central character, which is very essential to understand the story's ending. These themes have been expanded in the succeeding paragraphs and an attempt has been made to analyse the author's use of imagery and symbolism to enrich the story's plot and central character.
Isolation or loneliness is one of the main themes in the story. The story's central character, Sylvia associates herself with the story's main symbol the white heron through this context. The narrator highlights this theme using imagery in describing nature. She establishes the mood in the beginning by saying, " going away from western lights" and " striking deep into the dark woods". This use of concrete imagery of moving from light to dark creates an atmosphere of isolation. As to Sylvia herself, the narrator tells the reader she is lonely by saying "as the child had no playmates" and in the very end by saying ". this lonely country child". The narrator also tells that the heron is a lonely or rather quite creature by saying " vexed by their fluttering lawlessness, the solemn heron goes away".
