When Sylvia is climbing up the old pine tree in order to locate the white heron, the narrator uses imagery to capture Sylvia’s experience, as seen in the following passage:
Small and silly Sylvia began with utmost bravery to mount to the top of [the tree], with tingling, eager blood coursing the channels of her whole frame, with her bare feet and fingers, that pinched and held like bird’s claws to the monstrous ladder reaching up, up, almost to the sky itself.
The language here is extremely sensory—Sylvia experiences her blood as “tingling,” “eager,” and “coursing the channels of her whole frame,” while her bare feet and fingers “pinched and held like bird’s claws” to the tree. This language inspires readers to truly feel the tree-climbing experience alongside Sylvia, encouraging them to feel both the excitement of the coursing blood as well as the pinching pain of her feet on the branches.
The metaphorical description of the tree as a “monstrous ladder reaching up, up, almost to the sky itself” is also notable, as it adds a visual element to the scene as well. Readers are able to experience the immensity of the tree as “small and silly” nine-year-old Sylvia does.
All of this figurative language combines to help readers understand the significance of this experience for Sylvia. While she has explored the woods before, her excitement and smallness in the face of this old and magnificent tree indicates that this experience is going to fundamentally change her, as soon proves to be true. Before the climb, she was an innocent child hoping to impress a man (the hunter), and, afterward, she is a wiser figure who understands the majesty of nature and the importance of protecting it from people like the hunter who want to control and exploit it for personal gain.
