As early as birth a human being is automatically placed into a specific gender role. If the baby is female, they are swaddled in a pink blanket and if it is a male, they are wrapped in a blue blanket. If one is a little girl, she play with barbies and if one is a little boy, he plays with trucks. If one is female, they go to school to become a nurse or a teacher and if one is a male, they go to school to be a engineer or businessman. If one is a women, she will take maternity leave to take care of the baby and if one is a man, he will work to provide. If any of these norms are every broken, people are slightly taken back or confused. Obviously some girls are tomboys and some boys are more feminine or some women become doctors and some males…show more content… Sylvia and her grandmother live on a farm where they tend animals on a daily basis; one of which included a cow named Mistress Moolly who they obtain milk from. When the sportsman asks to stay the night in their home the grandmother quickly replies with, “Dear sakes, yes,” Jewett also refers to the grandmother as a hostess from there and on, implying that her main job for the rest of the story will be tending to this man. These examples conclude that both of the female characters in the novel are caregivers to both the animals and now this man which is a gender role we still see today surrounding professions like nursing and how it is primarily a female job.
On the contrary, the male role in the story is a masculine, wealthy and independent hunter. He has nothing to care for other than himself and is given food as well as a place to sleep with almost no effort. The Sportsman is wealthy and “can make them rich with money; he has promised it” if Sylvia tells him where the she saw the White Heron. The fact that he is wealthy as well as a hunter displays the gender role that men are the providers and supply their family/community with money and
