Communicating the Quest for Sustainability: Ecofeminist Perspectives in Sarah Orne Jewett’s ‘A White Heron’

Abstract

The objective of this article is to study the relationship between men, women and nature in Sarah Orne Jewett’s ‘A White Heron’ by using ecofeminist perspectives. The cultural and moral vision of Jewett is imperative to the scope of American regionalist writing and her work characterizes the extreme concern to representing the region from which the author comes. The setting of the story holds its relevance even in the twenty-first century when the world is facing a deep ecological crisis. In ‘A White Heron’, Sarah Orne Jewett narrates the story of a 9-year-old girl Sylvia, exploring the grounds around her home in search of a prized white heron. Therefore, I suggest, it is through this relationship that the author demonstrates regional sustainability through clearly defined repressive gender roles, feminizing the concept of submissiveness while masculinizing attitudes of dominance over nature and competence in dealing with the challenges that nature presents.