Shripadh Chitta
Ms. Silvers
AP English Literature and Composition
31 May, 2013
1994 AP Mock Exam Prose Passage Essay Revision
Passage from A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett
1994
Read the following passage carefully. Then write an essay analyzing how the author describes
the relationship between Sylvia and the natural world. Consider how different literary techniques
are used by the author in your analysis.
Sarah Orne Jewett, in A White Heron, utilizes literary techniques such as specific
selections of detail and syntactical structures, along with motifs and symbols to reveal the
student-teacher relationship between Sylvia and the natural world. Jewett consequently creates a
portrait of Sylvia as a brave young child who is trying to understand nature using nature itself,
even though there are many obstacles.
Various motifs are employed by the author, along with the major symbol of the old pine
tree, in order to depict the state of the natural world as well as the relationship Sylvia has with it.
The most significant motifs among these are darkness. Jewett states that the natural world has
good and bad qualities to it, represented by the darkness. She shows the reader that Sylvia is
becoming perceptibly akin to the dual state of nature: the good and the bad. She sees two hawks,
which are “dark against the blue sky,” flying “toward that glorious cast.” By understanding that
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nature, represented here by the two hawks, has two aspects it, Sylvia progresses in her journey in
understanding all of nature. Darkness is seen in a positive connotation in the example of the
hawks, delineating the idea that Sylvia is learning from nature as nature, through it benevolent
quality, is teaching Sylvia what it truly is. Nature becomes a sort of teacher to Sylvia, while
Sylvia becomes the student. The malevolent aspect of the darkness that characterizes nature is
shown in how Sylvia is almost “lost in the dark branches” of the white oak tree. Darkness has
two associations in the passage, one helping and one obstructing. Jewet uses this duality to
emphasize how Sylvia is trying to learn from nature how to see only its benevolent side, which is
the side that will ultimately give her knowledge of the what nature basically is. She succeeds in
doing this when she sees that nature is a “vast and awesome world.” Jewett also uses specific
syntactical structures and certain selections of detail to depict the relationship between Sylvia
and nature.
Jewett uses certain syntax during specific parts of Sylvia’s journey in understanding
nature in order to further underscore the student-like relationship she has with nature. Using
length sentence structures, Jewett verifies that the nature’s role is to be like a teacher to Sylvia.
In the third paragraph, Sylvia’s journey up the old pine tree represents a voyage up the tree of
knowledge with the tree being “the great main-mast.” Here, the author utilizes complex
sentences, where nearly every obstacle Sylvia faces on her journey to knowledge is obvious.
Once these obstacles are surpassed, Sylvia is on the path towards realizing what nature entails.
All along the journey, nature had been both a hindrance and an aid to Sylvia, demonstrating the
duality of nature. Nature, primarily symbolized by the old pine tree, facilitates Sylvia’s journey
to understanding what nature is itself, as shown when “the tree seemed to lengthen itself out as
she went up” the ladder to greater understanding.
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Using glorifying, yet sometimes terrifying language, Jewett creates a character, Sylvia,
who ventures out into the natural world trying to find the true essence of nature. Sylvia finds that
to understand nature, one must take nature as a teacher. Jewett intends for audience to see the
success of Sylvia purely on the fact that she completely became dependent on the natural world
to gain the knowledge of nature’s innate workings.