Plot & Summary
The ornithologist is searching for this specific rare bird.
This is the name of the young girl at the center of the story.
What is Sylvia?
The passage describing Sylvia's fingers gripping the tree "like bird's claws" is an example of this device.
What is a simile?
The story emphasizes the importance of protecting this.
What is nature?
What is scared?
Sylvia's grandmother.
What is Mrs. Tilley?
The white heron.
What is symbolism?
Sylvia chooses loyalty to nature over this human motivation.
What is greed?
Sylvia climbs the great pine at this time of day to find the heron's nest.
What is just before dawn?
This is the hunter's job.
What is orinthologist?
The forest and wilderness are described using this device, giving them human qualities.
Personification
The story highlights the loss of this quality when exposed to society.
What is innocence?
This is what Sylvia is doing when she first encounters the young hunter.
What is driving her cow home?
Mrs. Tilley tells the hunter that Sylvia "takes after" this absent family member, who was also a lover of the outdoors.
What is her uncle dan?
The narrator shifts from third person to directly address Sylvia — "Now look down again, Sylvia" — this technique is called this.
What is direct address?
The hunter's mission and the state of the world when the short story was written.
What is industrialization?
At the very end of the story, the narrator addresses these two things directly, asking them to bring their "gifts and graces" to Sylvia.
What is the woodlands and summertime?
This character represents the conflict between civilization and nature.
What is the hunter?
The contrast between the hunter and Sylvia is an example of this.
What is a foil?
This is what Sylvia rejects after she climbs the tree and sees the beauty of the white heron.
What is the materialsm?