A White Heron Essay

A detailed Summary of A White Heron Essay


A rite of passage is a ritual or ceremonial act associated with a change of status

for an individual. During a rite of passage a person goes through three stages. The first

stage is separation. In this stage, the person is taken away from their home and familiar

surroundings this symbolizes the death of childhood. The second stage is the transition. This stage is a period of testing physically, mentally, or morally. This is to make sure the character is ready to enter into adulthood. The third and final stage is reincorporation. This is the stage where the character returns to their home with all of the privileges and responsibilities of an adult. In the story, A White Heron, the main character, Sylvia, goes through a rite of passage. She finds herself choosing between money and the trust of


That night she sat with the heron and together they watched the sun come up. Her reincorporation occurred that morning when she returned to her grandmother's farm. The reader was told that she wasn't going to tell the heron's whereabouts when the author said, "She cannot tell the heron's secret and give its life away."(124). The hunter understood Sylvia's situation and supported her decision.

Sylvia's second stage to becoming an adult is her transition. When she meets a hunter he asks her to show him where the white heron lives so he can stuff it and add it to his collection of birds. Her grandmother also asks for her help because the hunter is willing to pay ten dollars if she finds the bird. The next day Sylvia goes into the woods with the hunter in search of the bird. She finds something in the hunter she's never had

Some common words found in the essay are:
White Heron, Heron Essay, rite passage, white heron, ready enter adulthood, sylvia goes, heron's secret, enter adulthood, tell heron's, ready enter,

Approximate Word count = 562
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

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