SARAH ORNE JEWETT

“A WHITE HERON” Background and Style

BACKGROUND

• Civil War ends 1865• Reconstruction• Immigration and Expansion

• Regionalism abounds• “local color”• offshoot of Realism (ordinary people, ordinary situations)• writers focus on specific geographical areas

• presentation of characters, dialect, customs, topography, and other features specific to a certain region

• often nostalgia and sentimentality in the writing (naturally, author from that area)

• contributed to:• the reunification of the country after the Civil War and • to the building of national identity

• short story as a literary form is popularized

Realism

Regionalism

Naturalism

SARAH ORNE JEWETT 1849-1909

• born in South Berwick, Maine• daughter of a country doctor

(Obstetrician)• poor health as a child• accompanied father on trips to visit

patients in rural southwestern coastal Maine

Inspiration to Chronicle New England Life

Her most famous work: The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896), a collected of interconnected sketches about coastal Maine

From 1881 to her death in 1909, Jewett had close domestic relationship with Annie Adams Fields, widow of editor James T. Fields: they had a “Boston marriage”

Relationships between mothers/daughters and among women figure prominently in her fiction. After the Civil War, which killed many men, American women faced new demands and opportunities to form relationships and communities

CHRONICLES OF NEW ENGLAND LIFE

“They melt into the land and the life of the land until they are not stories at all, but life itself.” -Willa Cather

Works include but are not limited to…

DeephavenA Country DoctorA White Heron and Other StoriesA Native of WimblyThe Life of NancyThe County of the Pointed Firs*

STANDARDS

L.F.1.1.3 Analyze, interpret, and evaluate how authors use techniques and elements offiction to effectively communicate an idea orconcept.

L.F.2.5.1 Identify, explain, interpret, describe, and/or analyze the effects of personification, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, satire, foreshadowing, flashback, imagery, allegory, symbolism, dialect, allusion, and irony in a text.

L.F.2.3.5 Explain, interpret, compare, describe,analyze, and/or evaluate tone, style, and/ormood in a variety of fiction:

•• the relationship between the tone, style,and/or mood and other components ofa text•• how voice and choice of speaker(narrator) affect the mood, tone, and/ormeaning of a text•• how diction, syntax, figurative language,sentence variety, etc., determine theauthor’s style

L.F.2.4.1 Interpret and analyze works from a variety of genres for literary, historical, and/orcultural significance.

STYLISTIC COMPONENTS

• Imagery Vivid words or phrases used to create images that appeal to one of the five senses

• Regional Dialect the accurate portrayal of how a person from a particular region actually speaks, evident in purposeful misspellings, grammatical

errors, colloquial phrases, inventive punctuation and loose sentence structure• Symbolism when an object represents an idea

STYLISTIC COMPONENTS

1. Imagery: Vivid words or phrases used to create images that appeal to one of the five sensesExample: The cow stopped long at the brook to drink, as if the pasture were not half a swamp, and Sylvia stood still and waited, letting her bare feet cool themselves in the shoal water, while the great twilight moths struck softly against her.1. Underline the imagery in the ex. 2. This ex. of imagery appeals to the sense of _________.3. The purpose of using this example of imagery is …

IMAGERY CONT’DTask:Find two effective visual images and two images that appeal to other senses. List your findings in a chart like the one below, addressing all areas of concern.Imagery Example

(underline the specific diction-[word choice])

Location

Sense Purpose

“Sylvia could see the white sails of ships out at sea, and the clouds that were purple and rose colored and yellow at first began to fade away.”

Last paragraph of page 5

sight Jewett describes the visual beauty of the sunrise. The multi-colored sky is breathtaking against the stark sails of the ships. Anyone who has ever seen a sunrise would be readily able to recall the awesomeness of a scene such as this

sight

tough

hearing

STYLISTIC COMPONENTS CONT’D

2. Regional Dialect -the accurate portrayal of how a person from a particular region actually speaks, evident in purposeful misspellings, grammatical errors, colloquial phrases, inventive punctuation and loose sentence structureExample: “ ‘Afraid of folks,’ they said! I guess she won't be troubled no great with 'em up to the old place!”

1.Underline two examples of regional dialect within the above sentence from “A White Heron.” 2.Label each example as to what type of regional dialect is being used.3.Translate each example as to what it should be or really is meant.4.Explain the purpose of Jewett’s portrayal of old Mrs. Tiley in speaking this way.

STYLISTIC COMPONENTS CONT’D

2. Regional Dialect -the accurate portrayal of how a person from a particular region actually speaks, evident in purposeful misspellings, grammatical errors, colloquial phrases, inventive punctuation and loose sentence structure

Task: Find 3 examples of regional dialect within text and list your examples in a chart that replicates the following:L

OCATION

Regional Dialect Type Translation

Purpose

Bottom 2nd para. onPage 2

“…a good ways." Colloquial Phrase

Far away Assists reader in recognizing Sylvia has fully acclimated to the country life.

Symbolism -- when an object represents an ideaItem Description

Most WILL have multiple descriptionsLocation Symbolizes Why

Geranium “Everybody said that it was a good change for a little maid who had tried to grow for eight years in a crowded manufacturing town, but, as for Sylvia herself, it seemed as if she never had been alive at all before she came to live at the farm. She thought often with wistful compassion of a wretched geranium that belonged to a town neighbor.”

Para. 2 Page 1

Sylvia

Nature

-It stands out in the city setting, but belongs in a rural setting… symbolizes Sylvia, who belongs in nature. -It also represents the suffocating nature of the city in comparison to the farm…symbolizes nature, wretched in city but would thrive on the farm.

Pine

Sylvia

Ornithologist

Heron

Jack Knife

Task:1.List descriptions of the items on the left, as many as you can find, skim and scan the entire text.2.List the location.3.Determine what each item could symbolize based on the descriptions you have listed.4.Explain your reasoning as to why you have come to that conclusion

Stylistic components cont’d cont’d

TASK:

As a Regionalist writer in “A White Heron,” how does Sarah Orne Jewett convey her purpose?

Divulge what the purpose of this short story is, and how Jewett achieves this purpose. You will Discuss the literary elements used, specifically, the use of style and the following components of style: (imagery, regional dialect, and symbolism). Be sure to include multiple examples to support your answer.

L.F.1.1.3 Analyze, interpret, and evaluate how authors use techniques and elements of fiction to effectively communicate an idea or concept.