A White Heron and Realism

In the story a white heron, Sylvia is introduced, she's a young girl in her own world. Moved from a big busy city to a simple town life, where she gets to be away from folks. In the story Sylvia is always found playing outside. A young hunter comes in and searches for the White Heron bird, because he is a bird collector, Sylvia unsettled by this statement feels her heart jump, this adds an element of realism because, she sees the bird alive enjoying its life, and would do anything to protect it even if that means risking a ten dollar reward that her family needed. Sylvia felt that preserving the animal was more important. Realistically people tend to protect what they love no matter the cost and what Sylvia did shows that, her family could have used that money to support themselves, but Sylvia didn't get tempted and stayed protecting the heron. Many people would go to extremes protecting something that has spiritual meaning to them as she did. She didn't trust the hunter, and stated that she would have liked him better had he not been carrying a gun, which is understandable many people would be more comfortable around someone without a weapon. Nature is romanticized as a place where she feels she's free and that she belongs in a way its where she feels free. In addition he states that the birds are better friends than the hunter could ever be. The birds don't carry around  guns or threaten anyone they are free creatures, and she would have rather been free with her birds than have that ten dollar reward for giving up the birds location. She faced her fears and protected the birds.