Symbolism In Worn Path By Eudora Welty

I think the trip to the city to get the medicine represents the mythological trip that the Phoenix takes to the sun to die. I say this because by going on this journey Phoenix is using the last of her energy and will probably die soon after it. On her way to the city Phoenix faces many obstacles. One obstacle she faces is old age “Seems like there is chains about my feet “ she says this because her old age has left her almost immobile. The first actual obstacle she comes across is the scarecrow who represents death or the grim reaper because he is described as wearing all black and is trying to get her to come with him. Another thing that links the scarecrow to death is the simple fact that he is in a field. The next obstacle is the white hunter who tells her to go back and represents evil forces ” Well, granny you must be a hundred years old and scared of nuthin I’d give you a dime if I had any money with me. But you take my advice and stay home, and nothing will happen to you”. He is lying about having no money so she steals a nickel from him, a trivial amount of money for him that won’t be missed so we the readers find ourselves justifying the theft.

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 Worn Path”, Phoenix Jackson’s name symbolizes the mythological bird “Phoenix.” In mythology, the story of the Phoenix is about a large, magical bird that lived for centuries, created a fire for itself, and rose up out of the ashes renewed again. The bird’s color is described as shimmering red and golden/yellow. Eudora describes Phoenix’s skin as “a golden color” and her cheeks “illuminated by a yellow burning in the dark,” and the red bandana she wears around her head also symbolises the colors of the bird. The idea of Phoenix persevering, like the bird, despite what many would see as insurmountable odds is best seen through her meeting with the hunter. Even when the hunter points out how far the journey is to town for Phoenix, she simply answers, “I bound to go to town, mister. The time come around.” She answers without hesitation, showing that the idea of giving up never entered her mind. It is this resilience in the face of adversity that further ties Phoenix to her namesake.

In Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path,” the character Phoenix Jackson is introduced. Phoenix Jackson is an uneducated, African-American woman without any family besides her sick grandson. Phoenix is the hero of this story and fits the role well by delivering much-needed medicine to her grandson. Phoenix shows many distinct traits that reveal her to be a hero to her grandson. The heroic feats she accomplishes pave a path that leads to her satisfaction as well as protection of her most beloved asset, her grandson. Throughout the story, Phoenix’s humble, caring, and determined character is displayed through her actions.

Phoenix also symbolizes a mythical bird; she has “the regenerative qualities of the bird are seen in Phoenix’s determination each time she suffers a setback,” Like the bird how it gets reborn again Phoenix keeps on getting up from the challenges and keeps on going just like getting reborn again. That is why the author named the main character Phoenix because she is like the mythical bird the phoenix in many ways even the description of Phoenix gives symbolism of her being like the bird. Phoenix wears a red rag to tie her hair and running underneath her skin “a golden color” [welty1274]. The image of the bird is shown in Phoenix’s face “the two knobs of her cheeks were illuminated by a yellow burning under the dark” [Welty 1274]. Her golden tone skin represents the fiery golden red feathers the bird has.

"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

In the short story, Phoenix, an old Negro woman almost in her late years, takes her last journey through the woods like she had done for the past years, since her grandson got really sick by swallowing lye. In this journey Phoenix phases difficulties. Her old age made her hallucinate about her getting a marble cake given by a young child. Her difficulties to walk and her poor eye sight made her striped dress get stuck in the branches. Even though she went through all of these obstacles she was determined to go get her grandson’s medicine. Once she got closer to her destination she came across this White Hunter, who points his gun at her. Phoenix gets scared because she thought he saw her get a nickel which had fallen out his pocket, while she distracted him. Then she continued her journey until she saw her destination. When she got there she asked a white lady that was carrying gifts, to tie her shoe laces because she was entering this big building. Once she tied her shoe laces Phoenix continued, until she

The story revolves around the main character, Phoenix Jackson. Jackson, an older woman with “numberless of branching wrinkles” that form a “whole little tree in the middle of her forehead,” encounters many setbacks, including poor eyesight, fatigue, multiple falls, thorn bushes, and barbed wire. In Saralyn R. Daly’s, “‘A Worn Path’ Retrod”, it is stated that “Phoenix encounters not mere difficulty on her path, but evil,” (Paragraph 1). Although the obstacles seem as though they will get the best of her, she perseveres through each like the ancient mythical bird, the phoenix. Ancient Greek mythology says the long-lived phoenix bird cyclically regenerated from its predecessor’s ashes after being engulfed in flames to burn to ash. After every fall, akin to a phoenix dying, she rose again, stronger, persevering as a phoenix does through its death.

With the first name of Phoenix, Ms. Welty is showing the symbol of a Greek mythological bird that could live to be one hundred to one thousand years. The old phoenix dies in a pile of ashes, much like the ashes used to make lye, only to reemerge a new magnificent, colorful bird, to live another cycle of life (Wikipedia). Much like the bird, Phoenix Jackson has a red rag around her head, a wrinkled face with yellow illuminating skin, ringlets hanging from her hair, a striped dress, and a bleached sugar sack apron (Welty). In addition, similar, her age, like the bird, Phoenix is aged but wise, likely close to one hundred years, reemerges back to life once she received the medicine her grandson needed. Even the last name of Jackson is likely to be a symbol of a Doctor, who according to an essay by Melisa D. Stang, “Parting the Curtain on Lye Poisoning in “A Worn Path,”” was named Chevalier

For many decades, Eudora Welty’s genius has given rise to a community of critical thinking and debate. In “’A Worn Path’: The Eternal Quest of Welty’s Phoenix Jackson,” James Robert Saunders (1992) explores the various interpretations of Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” by fellow critics who seek to make sense of the subtle and explicit symbolism throughout the story. Saunders goes on to analyze proposed theories such as that Phoenix Jackson, the protagonist, was symbolic of a religious figure and that Jackson’s grandson is in fact dead, but concludes that these arguments lack or ignore evidence throughout the story and pertinent history. Instead, Saunders proposes that Jackson is an individual with special abilities that allow her to protect nature and the innocent through the power of love (Saunders). In my analysis “’A Worn Path’: The Path of the Phoenix,” I acknowledge the deliberate use of the setting and character background implemented by Welty and conclude that Jackson is “the embodiment of the hopes and struggles African Americans experienced in a post-Civil War era.” Consequentially, after analyzing Saunders’ article, my argument that Jackson is an emblem of African American evolution finds strong support in the three points Saunders makes: Jackson lives up to her name, protects the innocent, and remains determined even against all odds.

“A Worn Path” tells of an elderly and frail black woman and of the hardships that she must overcome. Upon reading the story, you realize that there is more to the story than meets the eye. She faces many roadblocks along her way. Phoenix faces many dangerous obstacles along her way, for a person of her age. She faces racism from some of characters she meets along the way. Phoenix faces inferior treatment, as though she is nothing more than some insect to squash. This story is about not only her ‘journey’ to Natchez, but also about her journey through society and the struggle to overcome the dangers, being treated inferior, and the racism.

Phoenix Jackson in Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" has been compared to the mythological phoenix because of her birdlike qualities, and it's also been noticed that Phoenix possesses many of the same characteristics as Christ. But, what hasn't been addressed is the fact that Eudora Welty didn't just leave the symbolism to Christ alone. Welty also included many biblical allusions as well. Phoenix Jackson is not only symbolic of the mythological bird that rose from the ashes of its own demise or simply a Christ figure comparable to the Son of God, but she is also a biblical hero facing temptation and trials along her journey and succeeds unharmed and steadfast in her faith.

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

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

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,