A White Heron

She helps the old woman by taking over some of the more manual jobs, such as finding Mistress Moolly, the cow, each evening in the fields where she grazes and bringing her home.

Sylvia knows that she would be awarded much-needed money for directing him to the heron, but she decides that she can play no part in bringing about the bird's death.

"A White Heron" can be thought of as a starting point for both ecological, nature-ethical literature in the US, and questioning the undoubted positive development of the US.

Other themes explored include the hesitation of actions that might counteract the proceeding industrialization and the recollection of the individual human being as the important actor in society.

Since the rise of feminist literary criticism around the 1960s, more research has been focused on the themes of how the female experience is presented in "A White Heron".

Research by George Held has identified themes such as, “the socialization of girls, the balance of power between the sexes, and the need for a woman to be true to her nature".

Some criticism has even acknowledged the fact that the main character of the story may have been loosely based on Jewett's life growing up.