I liked the "The White Heron" better than the Twain piece even though there were some clever uses of colloqial speech and humorous dialogue in the latter. I really enjoyed the Jewett short -- reminded me a bit of a great children's author, Robert McClosky(also from the northeast), in its setting and theme. I was really pulling for "Sylvy" to make the choice that she did in the end; ten dollars was probably a great deal of money in 1886 for an eight year old or any commoner for that matter. The grandmother, "Mrs. Tilley" was written with a beautiful regional dialect and the natural setting was well described-- I'd like to go find that tree myself now! I do wonder if "Sylvy" would have made the same choice had she been 15ish and equally attracted to the young hunter; I think the pressure to divulge the graceful bird's dwelling would have been even greater than it already was.
Secondarily, this short made me think about how societal trends/conformity affect our natural environment; Egrets and many other birds as well as beavers and bison were hunted nearly to extinction for aesthetic fashion or ornament during these times; now and for the last decade or so, the lack of originality of the well-healed at high end restaurants has done the same thing to the Chilean sea bass. Smelt anyone!
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