Who does not know the adventurous stories of characters like Huckleberry Finn or Holden Caulfield - the Bildungsroman is quite a popular genre of American fiction. Generally portraying an adolescent protagonist on his way towards maturity, the image of coming-of-age, alternatively called initiation, is also a common topic of short stories. These short stories basically deal with the protagonist's shocking confrontation with (usually) one hitherto unknown aspect of the adult world, which offers the protagonist the possibility of development and "growing up".
A short story that contains such an initiation process is Sarah One Jewett's "A White Heron". Sylvia, the nine year old protagonist, gets confronted with female suppression in a patriarchal society, embodied by a nameless hunter who tries to find a rare bird in order to kill it for his collection. Feeling more and more attracted by the hunter due to the awakening of her own sexuality, Sylvia wants to please him and is tempted to reveal the bird's hide after having found it herself when climbing a tree. However, the protagonist decides to remain silent at the end of the story and not to give the bird's life away.
Literary scholars have argued that, with regard to the protagonist's initiation, there are generally two readings of the story: on the one hand, one can read it as Sylvia's successful process of self-discovery and her initiation into the secret of nature, but on the other hand it can also be read as Sylvia's anti-initiation into sexuality and society.
This paper is going to argue that these two readings of the story are not incompatible, but that Sylvia's initiation occurs on two different levels within the story and that her successful initiation into the secret of nature even requires her rejection of submitting herself to male dominance and her anti-initiation into (hetero-)sexuality.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. The Story of Initiation
2.1 The Term in its Literary Context
2.2 The Journey of Initiation
2.3 Different Types of Initiation
3. Aspects of Initiation in Sarah Orne Jewett's “A White Heron“
3.1 The Masculine Intruder in the Female World — The Awakening of Sylvia's Sexuality
3.2 Sylvia's Process of Self-Discovery and her Initiation into the Secret of Nature
3.3 Sylvia's (Anti-)Initiation into Sexuality
4. Conclusion
Works Cited
1. Introduction
Who does not know the adventurous stories of characters like Huckleberry Finn or Holden Caulfield — the Bildungsroman is quite a poplar genre of American fiction. Generally portraying an adolescent protagonist on his way towards maturity, the image of coming-of-age, alternatively called initiation, is also a common topic of short stories. These short stories basically deal with the protagonist's shocking confrontation with (usually) one hitherto unknown aspect of the adult world, which offers the protagonist the possibility of development and “growing up“.
A short story that contains such an initiation process is Sarah One Jewett's “A White Heron“. Sylvia, the nine year old protagonist, gets confronted with female suppression in a patriarchal society, embodied by a nameless hunter who tries to find a rare bird in order to kill it for his collection. Feeling more and more attracted by the hunter due to the awakening of her own sexuality, Sylvia wants to please him and is tempted to reveal the bird's hide after having found it herself when climbing a tree. However, the protagonist decides to remain silent at the end of the story and not to “give [the bird's] life away“ (Jewett 603).
Literary scholars have argued that, with regard to the protagonist's initiation, there are generally two readings of the story: on the one hand, one can read it as Sylvia's successful process of self-discovery and her initiation into the secret of nature (cf. Hovet, “The Lonely Country Child“ 169), but on the other hand it can also be read as Sylvia's anti-initiation into sexuality and society (cf. Ammons 10).
I am going to argue that these two readings of the story are not incompatible, but that Sylvia's initiation occurs on two different levels within the story and that her successful initiation into the secret of nature even requires her rejection of submitting herself to male dominance and her anti-initiation into (hetero-)sexuality.
2. The Story of Initiation
2.1 The Term in its Literary Context
In literature, there does not exist a single precise definition of the story of initiation, but literary scholars like Peter Freese and Mordecai Marcus have come across that it portrays a childish / adolescent protagonist on his passage towards maturity and that it generally deals with his or her shocking confrontation with a hitherto unknown aspect of the adult world, for instance the discovery of the existence of evil (cf. Freese 95-101). The idea of a novice undergoing such an initiation process derives from Greek mythology, where the phenomenon of puberty was conceptualized differently from today's perspective. Children did not undergo a procedure, but became adults through ceremonies of initiation, which were often connected to rituals including physical torture. Such ceremonies lead the novice from childhood to adulthood and turned him into a valid member of the community (cf. Miller 198).
Instead of having to undergo physical torture the protagonists of stories of initiation rather suffer mentally, as their shocking confrontations with unknown parts of the adult world often leave them behind confused and they do not know how to handle their situation. The characters are often exposed to devilish characters but can find help and advice by a motherly or fatherly mentor on the other hand (cf. Freese 155).
Although stories of initiation mainly portray male protagonists, especially modern texts also feature aspects of female initiation, which is considered to be “both psychologically and structurally more complex“ (qtd. in Bergmann 54). Contrary to male initiation processes, which are often depicted in an adventurous way and show the protagonist “discovering the world“, female initiation — due to social structures — rather focuses on self-discovery and portrays the protagonist's confrontation with her own sexuality and / or her growing into the role of being a woman (cf. Bergmann 55-57).
According to Peter Freese, initiation in literature is usually presented as a real or metaphorical journey, like the crossing of streets or rivers, that consists of a tripartite structure and “leads the protagonist from innocence to experience“ (138, 175).
This journey and especially the protagonist's overcoming obstacles (like bridges, dark streets or waters) illustrate the difficulties in the process of growing up. In the phase of “exit“ the innocent protagonist leaves the “microcosm“, the safe haven, of his protected childish world behind and metaphorically enters into the adult world, which is often connected to a darkening and threatening atmosphere in the story.
Having symbolically entered the adult world the protagonist is mostly confronted with a shocking experience he or she did not expect to have to deal with, which symbolizes the character's “transition“ and gives him the possibility of gaining some insight into adult life. After this experience, the protagonist returns home as a ‘new man‘ himself at the end of the story, in a more mature state of mind, with a greater insight into the complexities of grown-up life. This third phase of the (metaphorical) journey is called “(re-)entrance“ and illustrates the outcome of the character's initiation. Depending on the effect of his or her experience, the protagonist either reenters the world of childhood or gains access to the adult world (cf. Freese 175).
With regard to the outcome of the protagonist's initiation and his or her gain of maturity one can, according to Mordecai Marcus, distinguish between three different types of initiation. Marcus differentiates between “tentative, uncompleted and decisive initiations“ (192-193) and determines characteristics of each type. As he explains, a “tentative initiation“ leaves the protagonist behind totally confused and he or she does not gain maturity.
An “uncompleted initiation" is defined to “leave the protagonist behind in a struggle for certainty“ (Marcus 192) on the one hand, but on the other hand it also provides the character with some insight into the adult world.
In the last and rarest type of initiation in literature, the “decisive initiation“, the protagonist gains complete understanding and maturity and is fully initiated into the world of adulthood as a metaphorically grown up person (cf. Marcus 192-193).
3. Aspects of Initiation in Sarah One Jewett's “A White Heron“
3.1 The Masculine Intruder in the Female World — The Awakening of Sylvia's Sexuality
A short story that illustrates female initiation in a patriarchal society is Sarah Orne Jewett's “A White Heron“. Besides from the protagonist's (anti-)initiation into sexuality, that is triggered by the appearance of the hunter, she also undergoes a process of self-discovery and gets initiated into the secret of nature. In the following, I am going to investigate the different levels of initiation within the story and their influence on each other.
Living together with her grandmother in a harmonious cohabit, Sylvia's world is presented completely female initially, since even the cow, Sylvia's “valued companion“ (Jewett 597) is referred to with the personal pronoun “she“. The protagonist is portrayed as an innocent, nature-loving girl feeling closely connected to nature as “the wild creaturs counts her one o'themselves“ (Jewett 599). Taking into consideration the fact that the name “Sylvia“ derives from Latin and means forest (cf. Brenzo 36), it becomes evident that Jewett uses a telling name in order to underline the protagonist's strong bond with nature.
At the beginning of the story, Sylvia is walking home the cow — her only playmate as she is the only child living on the farm. The image of sunset represents the time of transition in this context and foreshadows Sylvia's change. Applying Peter Freese's model of the journey of initiation to the text with regard to the protagonist's upcoming discovery of her own sexuality, Sylvia's walking through the woods and the creation of a darkening atmosphere can furthermore be seen to represent the “exit phase“ (Freese 175).
Sylvia's calm and harmonious world is disrupted when “the little woods-girl is horror-stricken to hear a clear whistle not very far away“ (Jewett 598), the appearance of the hunter obviously symbolizes a turning point within the story. The nameless hunter represents stereotyped masculinity, that suddenly intrudes into the female world, and is attributed with masculine symbols like a gun and a whistle. Except from the illustration of the hunter's power over nature (cf. Hovet, “The Lonely Country Child“ 167) these symbols can, with regard to their appearance, furthermore be interpreted in a sexual context. The protagonist's initial reaction to the hunter is fear, obviously resulting from her earlier experiences with male dominance, which she made when she was living in town with her parents. This fear is expressed by the fact that she tries to hide after hearing the “boy's whistle“ (Jewett 598) and even accepts the risk of delivering her beloved cow. The image of Sylvia's shyness towards the hunter is supported by several images of hiding animals (cf. Brenzo 36) in the course of the story, which additionally emphasize the protagonist's unity with nature. Throughout the whole story, masculinity is represented by the hunter in a very dominating and demanding way, which is expressed by the frequent use of imperatives. Instead of asking Mrs. Tilley for accommodation he gives orders for instance. Nevertheless, Sylvia is more and more fascinated by the hunter, although “she would have liked him vastly better without his gun“ (Jewett 600), showing the ambivalence of the girl's feelings towards the stranger. The hunter offers her money for showing him the heron's nest. This offer links masculinity to the idea of corruption, another aspect Sylvia gets confronted with in the story. She seems to be quite uncertain about the stranger, which is illustrated by the use of positively connoted adverbs like “kindly“ and “gallantly“ (Jewett 598), that contradict Sylvia's fear at first sight, but “the mixture of [the hunter's] charm and forcefulness justifies Sylvia's ambivalent feelings towards him“ (Brenzo 38).
The protagonist's increasing affection for the hunter, symbolically her affection for masculinity, culminates in the loss of her unity with nature, which is expressed by a disturbed communication when Sylvia watches a toad, but does no longer notice its' needs.
The entrance of the hunter in the female world leads to the awakening of Sylvia's female sexuality, which is connected to a strong dream imagery. This dream imagery pervades the whole story, underlining the subconsciousness of the whole process that Sylvia is undergoing.
Sylvia's devotion to the hunter and the temptation of his promise finally lead to her desire to find the heron's nest in order to please him. In this context she decides to accompany the hunter to the woods. The protagonist completely submits herself to the stranger, which is expressed by the fact that “she d[oes] not lead the guest, she only follow[s]“ (Jewett 601), once again illustrating male dominance. Considering the fact that the woods represent Sylvia's natural habitat as she is attributed with bird-like descriptions, the image of her “blindly following“ a stranger alludes to the role of women in the patriarchal society because Sylvia does no longer think and act independently, but mindlessly follows a man.
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