In the short story, “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty, the story's protagonist Phoenix Jackson travels from her home through the forest, to town where she goes to retrieve a remedy for her grandson's throat. Phoenix Jackson is an elderly black woman on a difficult, dangerous journey through the cold winter to reach the city. To maintain her balance through this journey and to ward off wild animals slinking through the woods, Phoenix walks with a thin cane made from an umbrella. She has made this trip many times before, however, this time around is much more difficult due to her aging body and fragile bones. The title of the story, “A Worn Path,” is foreshadowing something coming to an end. In Phoenix Jackson's case, it could mean the last time she walks the path or it could even very well be her life. Eudora Welty describes Phoenix walking slowly in the dark pine shadows with a cane, indicating the rough journey ahead. Early on in the story, she encounters a thorn patch. In this story, it states,“Thorns, you doing your appointed work. Never want to let old folks pass, no sir. Old eyes thought you was a pretty little green bush.” The thorns represent some of the hurdles that hinder you if you are born black in America, especially in Jackson's time. The author uses imagery in the story to make the reader feel as if they know her. “God watching me the whole time. I come to stealing.” When Jackson talks to herself aloud the reader imagines the young spirited side of her. In this
A Worn Path by Eudora Welty is a short story about an elderly women- Phoenix Jackson and who is taking a long journey though the woods into town to acquire medicine for her sick grandson. On her way she encounters many obstacles such as the thorns in which her dress got caught in, barbed wire, a scarecrow, a large dog, a hunter and the lady, which ties her shoes. All of these obstacles among her dementia and hallucinations, which are implied throughout the story, delay her from reaching town. Throughout the story the reader can perceive that her grandson has already died, however due to her dementia she has trouble remembering. A Worn Path by Eudora Welty is a metaphor for people in this world that use the “worn path” instead
The title of the short story, "A Worn Path," is a classic foreshadowing which gives us a feeling that something is going to the end. For Phoenix, “something” would be her life. The author describes Phoenix walks slowly in the dark pine shadows with a makeshift cane (to indicative of her rough journey ahead)***. In the last
In a short story, “A Worn Path” An elderly woman named Phoenix jackson makes a trip to town to get medicine
In this short story “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty, I will be analyzing symbolism. In the story “A Worn Path” the author uses symbolism to create a figurative explanation of the occurrences in her journey. This story has distinct symbols from myths, historical, and biblical events. The character Phoenix Jackson has various trials to go through on her way to town to get more medicine for her ill grandson.
In “A Worn Path,” Eudora Welty uses setting, characterization, and tone to illustrate the progresses of Phoenix, in a physical and emotional sense. The author illustrates the progress of Phoenix’s social, physical, and emotional sense to describe changing times and social norms. This allows the reader to get a clear and vivid out reach of what they are going to read about phoenix journey.
"A Worn Path" is a story about a journey of an elderly black woman by the name of Phoenix Jackson. In this story Phoenix travels through woods, grasslands, farms, and hills. While facing many hardships and violence, Phoenix comes across the four major difficulties in this story being her age, blindness, vulnerability, and ethnicity during this time period. Phoenix is very elderly as the story shows very often revealing plainly to the reader that Phoenix is old, and that she has the difficulties that come with the elderly age. For example in the story the writer states "Her skin had a pattern all its own of numberless branching wrinkles" (Page 9). With Phoenix being most likely blind, as the writer states "Her eyes were blue with age," and
Today we will be talking about the different literary references used throughout Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path”. I will explain and decode different techniques used by the author throughout her story. The story is of an old southern African American woman, named Phoenix Jackson, making her way into to town to pick up her grandsons medication from the doctor’s office. But this is no normal old woman. She cannot see and is picking her way with a cane to make her way across a barrage of obstacles. Throughout her journey she comes upon different characters and situations, from these events we will draw our interpretations of the symbolism embedded within the tale.
Within every person lies a will and a flame of strength to achieve any goal, or conquer any obstacle in life. In Eudora Welty 's "A Worn Path", her main protagonist, Mrs. Phoenix Jackson, perfectly displays the strength that a human possess. Despite being of old age, poor and out of shape, Mrs. Jackson 's strength defies these odds on the worn path that she walks daily. Human strength is abundant in "A Worn Path", as the author shows the reader the reason why mankind is so strong. Welty demonstrates that love is what makes Mrs. Jackson, and everyone else, strong enough to move mountains. The strength of Mrs. Jackson exceeds more than normal, due to the condition of her beloved grandson, so much that not pain, death, or pride can kindle the fire of her strength.
A phoenix is a bird that lives to symbolize rebirth at its finest. A phoenix goes through the many stages of life, to get to the very moment where it burns itself up and becomes reborn once more. The phoenix comes from greek mythology and is used as the reincarnation symbol in most stories. In the story “Worn Path” by Eudora Welty, the main character’s name is Phoenix. Although I will touch more on this specific meaning, but the story has an incredible amount of hidden meanings that touch on even the most sensitive discussion topics of the modern age. Whether it is about racism, internal conflict, or natural conflict there is always a lesson to learn from this story. Eudora Welty clearly wants to make it known that even as her main character goes through a simple task of walking from her home to the town, she discovers many issues along her journey.
In Eudora Welty ‘A Worn Path’ is a short story where symbols are found everywhere throughout many places where you read. This short story is about an old woman named Phoenix Jackson whom was a black African American that was compared to a mythical Arabian bird, and actually that bird lived up to five centuries in desserts and after living those five centuries it would burn up; and then from those same ashes it would then be reborn and it would start from the
Although Phoenix Jackson is old, tired, dirty, and poor, nothing can stand in her way. In Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path,” Phoenix jumps off the page as a vibrant protagonist full of surprises as she embarks on a long, arduous journey to
I agree that her misinterpretation of the scarecrow is a vital part of the story. In “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty, Phoenix has difficulty seeing. This characteristic contributes to the impact of the story by showing her strength and perseverance along the path to Natchez (Welty). For example, even though Phoenix couldn’t see well and faced several difficulties along the way, such as the incident with the dog, she continued her path to Natchez in order to get medicine for her ill grandson (Welty). Phoenix’s desire to overcome obstacles to get the medicine for her ill grandson symbolizes the older African-American generation’s strength through the difficult period in order to provide the younger African-American generation with a better quality
Before the journey even begins, we come to an understanding that this journey is going to be a struggle for Phoenix. She is described as "very old and small" (86) and walks carefully with her "thin, small cane made from an
The primary moral in A Worn path is the love, and life of Phoenix Jackson. The trail she travels across interrupts her life. The love and affection she has for her grandson , is portrayed as her love. If we read the story closer then it'll lead us to the conclusion that Phoenix relatively does no longer have a Grandson. Phoenix goes to the doctor and states that her grandson has an flue and been having it for a long time. This may occasionally rationale the reader to feel that she used to have a Grandson but he became so in poor health he died. Yet , at the same time one can see her intellect by seeing the money fall out of the hunters jacket from a distant distance.
Welty uses imagery to link Phoenix to a bird (Welty 2). Her cane makes a sound “like the chirping of a solitary little bird (Welty 1)”. She stole a coin the same way she would have “lifted an egg from under a sitting hen (Welty 3). Her grandson, the future Phoenix, “Peeps out from his little patch quilt, holding his mouth out like a little bird” (Welty 6). Phillips describes Phoenix Jackson as not being aware of having “a mythic dimension” and the journey itself as having “archetypal depth” (419). The title “A worn Path” and not “The Worn Path” puts the meaning on a way of life as opposed to the directional way (Keys 354). The path in the story Is overgrown, which contradicts a trampled worn path like the one the title implies.