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Literary significance & criticism

There is a connection between Sylvia, her grandmother, and the cow. All three are female and living a gentle and comfortable, yet poor life. Along comes the male hunter from the city to threaten their daily easy-going life style. This could possibly change their lives and upset the tranquility of nature.

Sylvia begins to understand what it means to have maturity and to overcome her selfishness as a child. Her innocence in putting the heron first before taking money shows how, in a short time, Sylvia has grown. However, she continues with an innocent goal of placing more value on the wonderful bird than on money. The Power of nature proved to be much greater for her. Many people would have given away the location of the bird and taken the money. Also her relationship with nature was much stronger than any human connections she had up to this point in her life, and she knows she receives more satisfaction from nature than from the money she could have received from the hunter.

White plays a big part in this story also, as a symbol of purity or virginity. The heron, and the cow's milk, all symbols of this pure, rural life, are all described as white. The hunter, meanwhile, is not described in such a way, representing the intrusion of a non-innocent force into an innocent domain.