Ap Response "girl and Tree"

Storytelling is as old as time, for ages people have been telling and retelling stories of glory and pride, to preserve the adventures portrayed in them. When, however, these tales are spun, frequently there are additional details- exaggerations and dramatizations woven in with each telling, to make the feats more incredible, and the characters more admirable. Such is the case in the passage from “The White Heron”, the author dramatizes the deed of young Sylvia to make her a brave and daring heroine.

In the passage, the author, Sarah Orne Jewette uses multiple techniques to increase the awe of her heroine’s deed of conquering the great pine. Her diction is descriptive, and details both the tree and the girl in specific, ways, using hyperbole and metaphors to convey a relatable and strong description. The tree is a “great pine”, so large it “[towers] above all [the trees]” in the forest, easily seen from “miles and miles away”. It is like “a ladder reaching up, up, almost to the sky itself”. Its “sharp dry twigs” are like “talons” grabbing and scratching the adventurer as she ascended the “great main mast to the voyaging earth”. Sylvia, the “small” girl who displays the “utmost bravery” climbs to the top of the tree. She climbs with her “bare feet and fingers” and her frame is “tingling” with sensation as she begins her ascent, with nothing but her “thin little fingers” to “hold fast” as she climbed the “great stem”. These descriptions accentuate the great differences between the tree and the tiny conqueror. The tree is vast and huge, and Sylvia is a “light, weak creature”, and the fact that she climbs to the top and accomplishes the feat, increases her stature as a heroine.

Jewette also uses imagery to boost up the trees intimidation and overall might.