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. The first thing I thought about after finishing the story was how routine …show more content…
When she arrives at the doctors’ office she is greeted first by a grumpy front desk receptionist, then a nice nurse who is familiar when Phoenix approaches her. The nice nurse assures the front desk receptionist that Phoenix is there to pick up her grandsons medication. As she and the nurse chat, Phoenix’s old age starts to play a factor when she loses her train of thought while the nurse asks on the condition of the grandson. As phoenix walks into town, she asks a random woman on the street to tie her shoe. “Thank you missy. I doesn’t mind asking a nice lady to tie my shoe when I gets on the street”, (A Worn Path, 1280) this could be a continuation of the representation of the child-old woman analogy that I described earlier in the essay. As she finds her way into town, she finds her way to the doctor’s office, she then makes a conversation with the nurse and tells her, “We is the only two left in the world. He suffers and it don’t seem to put him back at all. He got a sweet look. He going to last. He wear a little patch quilt and peep out holding his mouth open like a little bird. I remember so plain now. I not going to forget him again, no, the whole enduring time. I could tell him from all the others to creation” (A Worn Path, 1280). I saw this as a representation of how she felt alone in the world, and how she is going to
Phoenix Jackson, the main character, is a small, old African American woman who goes on a journey for a purpose that is unknown at the beginning of the story. Although Phoenix has made this trip many times, something is different about this trip. Throughout her journey, Phoenix faces many obstacles and hardships. The author uses symbolism and, later, gives the reader awareness of Phoenix’s character while, hopefully, teaching a lesson about life. In “A Worn Path”, Eudora Welty uses the symbols of the name “Phoenix”, life and death, and the main characters’ age throughout the story.
Overall, Phoenix Jackson’s character adds to the story through her humble, maternal strength. Phoenix’s love for her grandchild brought her through many challenges, but year after year as she completes her trek, she keeps her grandson as her top priority. This overwhelming level of determination allows her to keep hold of her most valuable possession. Through her actions she reveals to the reader that her humble, caring, determined nature allows her to overcome the odds and provide for her family as well as maintain a simple Southern elegance.
A person’s journey can have symbols that come through everyone’s life. Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. In “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty, Eudora describes symbols by using people that come through Phoenix’s path while she’s in her journey to Natchez. Eudora uses a nickel, marble cake, big dead trees, mistletoe, and a white hunter to symbolize Phoenix’s difficulties and obstacles that she had to go through in order to get to her destination.
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.
Through the character of Phoenix Jackson in “A Worn Path” Welty produces a picture of an aging African-American woman in the Jim Crow South. In “A Worn Path” we learn of the hardships Jackson faces on her weekly journey for medicine to sooth the pain of her grandson. Welty conveys this these hardships by giving the reader insight into the physical health, the mental health, and the socio-economic status of Jackson.
We all have someone that takes care of us and, would do anything to see us do well and be happy. In the short story A Worn Path this young child made a poor decision, which put his very life a risk. His Grandma named Phoenix would not see this happen. So despite her age and her lack of capability to do things that required physical exertion, she set out on a long trek to the nearest hospital to find her Grandson, who she loved very much, medicine. We can learn a lot of things from this fearless Grandmother, how she carried herself, and respond to the trials she came across. We can also learn a lesson from how the Grandson reacted to the courageous acts of his Grandmother. There are three important messages that the reader can derive from the short story A Worn Path by Eudora Welty, we are all going to travel paths in life and we need to stick to them and not fall off, people need to learn to express their thankfulness to those who sacrifices for them, we also need to learn to be more accepting and nicer to others.
In the story “A Worn Path” uses a continuous number of literary techniques and there is an overflow of symbolism. In the story everything symbolizes an object symbolism is when an object in the story can relate to something. Symbolism is a literary technique that adds meaning to a story by using an event or object as a symbol to represent something else. Phoenix Jackson represents the most important thing in the story the ancient Egyptian bird the Phoenix. The story “A Worn Path” takes place in December 1941. It’s about an old lady named Phoenix Jackson that goes to town in Natchez, Mississippi to get some medicine for her grandson who had swallowed lye many years back. Phoenix faces some obstacles on her way to town that try to keep her
With this statement, the author clearly depicts Phoenix’s determination to continue down this path despite the challenges of the wild animals. She is determined not to let anything come between her and getting to town for her grandson’s medication. Phoenix may be old and worn, but her determination motivates her to continue.
Welty writes, “With her hands on her knees, the old woman waited, silent, erect, and motionless, just as if she were in armor” (318; 85). However, Phoenix manages to regain her senses after a few minutes, explaining to the nurses, “It was my memory had left me. There I sat and forgot why I made my long trip” (318; 88). She continually takes her personal shortcomings in stride and has an obvious wit about her, which she uses to her advantage. When she is offered some pennies by an attendant, Phoenix instantly replies, “[f]ive pennies is a nickel” (319; 100). The quick thinking earns her some additional money and allows her to purchase a gift for her grandson. Despite being elderly and often forgetful, Phoenix persists in her journey with experienced fortitude.
In "A Worn Path", a short story by Eudora Welty, the main character, an old colored woman named Phoenix, slowly but surely makes her way down a "worn path" through the woods. Throughout her journey, she runs into many obstacles such as a thorny bush and a hunter. She overcomes these obstacles and continues with her travels. She finally reaches her destination, the doctor’s office, where she gets medicine for her sick grandson back home. Many critics have speculated that this short story represents the love a grandmother shows for her grandson. Others say this story represents life and death, where Phoenix represents an immortal figure. Dennis J. Sykes disagrees with the other critics by saying,
Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" is a story that emphasizes the natural symbolism of the
To appreciate the story’s emotional setting, there is must an understanding of Phoenix’s motivation for taking this huge task.The realization of how precisely how hard of a task walking to the city was for Phoenix. Phoenix’s motivation comes from her grandson who is ill. Her grandson has issues with his throat affecting his ability to swallow and breathe (Welty, 2013, 240). In this instance, the prevailing emotion is that of concern for a loved one. Phoenix takes up the responsibility of ensuring her grandson’s survival. The journey is anything but smooth evidenced by her interaction with the young white
Phoenix Jackson travels an extensive journey with great challenges to obtain medicine for her ill grandson in “A Worn Path”. Phoenix has made this journey before, she knows the trail well, and she talks her way up the hill, and then reassures herself with knowing the next part of the trail. “’Up through the pines,’ she said at length, ‘now down through the oaks’” (Welty 1639). This trip is not easy for a young person, let alone old Phoenix Jackson. Along the way she takes numerous breaks and talks about how strenuous the trip is for her. She encounters a hunter who is astonished that she is making this venture. “Why that’s too far! That’s as far as I walk when I come out by myself, and I get something for my trouble.” (Welty 1693). Phoenix is determined to get to town and continues on. She finds her way to town, and makes her way into a building, presumably a medical clinic. As Phoenix speaks to the nurses, her age starts to show, consequently the long trip has made her forget why she has come all this way. One of the nurses reminds her why she has come and Phoenix reveals just how important this medicine is. “We is the only two left in the world” (Welty 1643). Therefore, her love for her sick grandson has made it possible for Phoenix to come all this way. Phoenix made this long journey to get the medicine for the only family she has left, her grandson. Her perseverance has made it possible for her grandson to live, thus sustaining her family.
As she walks to Natchez, Phoenix must cope with unequal conditions that are inherently tied to her age, her race, and her class. But Phoenix perseveres, despite the fact that she falls in a ditch, gets attacked by animals, and is confronted with a racist hunter. Phoenix’s journey on this “Worn path”, is loaded with hardship as she carries out these journeys “just as regular as clockwork”(Welty 671). Also, on her trip, she has not only obtained the medicine, but she also gets enough money to buy her grandson a present. Even though life has been hard for her, she still wants to show her grandson how great the world is through that present. Phoenix’s journey shows how perseverance can give power even to those in positions of weakness. I can connect with Phoenix because I had to persevere to get to where I am right now in my education. I started going to St.Philip’s School and community center when I turned five years old. I had the best time there outside of the classrooms because I had such amazing friends. However, when it was time to get to work in my class I would always feel so dumb. In my reading class was where I had the most trouble. It made me so sad that my smart friends were reading chapter book while I was still trying to comprehend basic sentences. Even though reading was challenging for me I still stuck with it. While all my friend were taking Spanish and my school, my parents arranged a
James Saunders wrote an interesting article “’A Worn Path’ The Eternal Quest of Welty’s Phoenix Jackson” (The Southern Literary Journal 25.1, Fall 1992: p62-73.) that not only analyzed Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” (The Collected Works of Eudora Welty) from his perspective but also included the perspectives of other authors which makes his article an excellent source for interpretations of ‘A Worn Path’.