Symbolism

"A White Heron" A few things I thought were symbols in this story were the color white, and the hunter, and the tree. I think the white symbolizes the very plain and simple life they live in the country. It's nothing crazy, it's just a basic calm and quiet life. The hunter symbolizes/creates turmoil and is different, they were fine until he showed up. He is the only guy in the story the cow, grandmother and Sylvy are are girls, and so when something different and foreign shows up Sylvia is uncomfortable and a lot of people are uncomfortable with new and different situations so actually that is kind of a worldly theme. I think that the tree kind of symbolizes the difficult decision she has to make about whether or not to tell the hunter about the heron. The climb isn't an easy one and she struggles with it, she also has a hard time with her decision because she doesn't want to tell him really, but the money would be helpful to her and her grandmother so she struggles with it, at the same time it kind of shows that she isn't willing to give up her morals for money and I think a lot of people wouldn't be able to make that decision in the right way like she did.

"The Yellow Wall-Paper" I had a hard time finding symbols in this one but one that I did find is the way that she just listened to her husband and her brother, because they were men. The male dominance was a theme I think, she knows something is wrong with her, but since they men say there isn't, there isn't. Also when she doesn't want to be in the room with the horrible yellow paper she has to stay because John says that the air is better up there. I know the yellow paper is a symbol, but I'm not really sure of what. I googled what the color yellow symbolized and it said that it stood for happiness, but also is the color of cowards and deceit. I don't know if either of those really work, she wasn't happy, I guess maybe she was cowardly because she just submitted to whatever John said, but she was a bit on the loony side so I don't know if that counts.