The story tells of Phoenix whom is travelling from her home “behind the ridge” in the direction of a town. During her travels, she encounters several obstacles in her path to include a log that must cross, a thorny bush that catches her dress, crawling under barbed wire, hallucinations of a boy holding a piece of cake, a buzzard that’s watches her, a white male hunter and a dog. Of her perils on this path, she finds herself fortunate to find fresh water and accidently dropped nickel by the white hunter. As she enters the town riddled with Christmas decorations, she encounters friendly people and towns woman willing to help tie a shoe lace for Phoenix since she was unable to do so herself in her elderly age. She ultimately reaches her destination only to reveal that she is at a medical office of sorts and is there to pick up medicine for her sick grandson.
In A Worn Path, Phoenix uses her race and age to manipulate others to get their money. With the hunter, Phoenix tricks him into doing something else so she could steal the nickel that fell from his pocket. Then, she is able to get the attendant to give her more money she intended too. Phoenix also shows how she will stop at nothing to help her loved one and will put herself in potential danger for him. Because of that, it shows how Phoenix is persistent and cares more for her grandson than herself.
Throughout A Worn Path Welty is very good at using detailed descriptions of people, places, and things. Welty starts the story by describing the appearance of the main character, Phoenix Johnson. Welty starts by describing setting that Phoenix is presently in. The countryside that is described before us at the beginning is that it is cold and Christmastime weather. On this December day she is walking down a long and enduring Natchez Trace to perform a heroic quest.
"A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty is a short tale around an elderly African-American lady who embraces a well-known voyage on a street in a country region to gain solution for her grandson. Initially distributed Feb 1941 On an icy December day, an elderly lady named Phoenix Jackson advances along a remote way, portraying the adventure to herself as she goes. She crosses various types of landscape—slopes, woodlands, marshes, and fields—that test the quality and continuance of her old body. She experiences creatures and individuals along her, too. Some of these are genuine; others are fantasies, recollections, or traps of the eye.
Welty’s short story “A Worn Path” has been subjected to many diverse, interpretive responses over the years. For example, the short story is rich with a variety of different symbols, imagery, and ideas. Nonetheless, despite the variety of analytical responses, the fundamental theme of “love conquers all” is still present. The main character Phoenix is able to make a heroic sacrifice by enduring a long and tiresome journey to the city. Her main motivation is the love she has for her grandson because she must travel to purchase the medication he needs to overcome his illness.
In the story “A Worn Path,” by Eudora Welty, Phoenix Jackson’s characterization, symbolism/imagery, and conflict are shown while she is on a journey to get some medicine for her grandson. First of all, Welty represents characterization through Phoenix Jackson’s bravery and determination. The story states that, “She was very old and small and she walked slowly in the dark pine shadows”’ (275). As a very old woman it is not safe for Phoenix Jackson to be walking by herself in the dark woods rather should be at home. However this shows how brave Phoenix is going all this way when it is dark and going to go get medicine.
In the short story, “A Worn Path,” Eudora Welty follows the journey of an old, frail woman named Phoenix Jackson on a long walk into Natchez, Mississippi where she has to get medicine for her grandson. The trip becomes especially difficult because of her age, and in mid-trip she forgets the reason for the struggle. At the end of the journey she remembered, retrieved the medicine, and decided to buy her grandson a Christmas present with the ten cents she had acquired during the day. Although, there is a deeper meaning that conveys simple life behind the journey, as well as the story, a simply beautiful story with many techniques and devices that employs an intricate and densely complex form. Even though it is not clear to anyone quite what it is, the story
In society, oppression and societal norms dictate the rules of survival, which draw out the most prominent traits that individuals use to their advantage to survive and grow. “A Worn Path”, written by Eudora Welty, represents this dynamic food chain built on the contrasts of white and black, or young and old, that motivate Phoenix, the protagonist, to find her true motivation and reason for living. To highlight the theme of being perseverant despite the encountering the clashing struggles in society within “A Worn Path”, Eudora Welty establishes and analyzes through symbols, the character Phoenix Jackson, an old and feeble colored woman oppressed by the obstacles of race and societal norms but achieves her life’s purpose by battling and accepting the conflicts on her path, displaying her trait of perseverance. Phoenix Jackson, despite being old and worn-down, displays her willpower of bringing medicine to her grandson by constantly going back and forth to town. The reoccurring symbol of time presents itself throughout the story to highlight Phoenix’s mechanical routine of trailing on the path full of obstacles.
Using symbols, and imagery, Eudora Welty demonstrates the perseverance of african americans in her short story “A Worn Path”. As the most apparent example of a communicative dimension of racism in the short story, Welty uses the symbol of the racist hunter, and protagonist Phoenix’s response to his discrimination, to display african american persistence. The hunter’s attitude towards Phoenix is a prominent example of discrimination. The hunter exclaims, “I know you old colored people! Wouldn 't miss going to town to see Santa Claus!”( Welty 4 ).
In the short story “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty, Phoenix Jackson is an elderly African-American woman who plans to go on a very difficult journey. This journey is not only arduous for Phoenix physically, but mentally also. Through the journey she succumbs to challenges such as crawling on the forrest floor despite her old age, and often loses focus from the purpose of her journey. The setting of the story creates a strenuous path for Phoenix to travel, and also enhances the mental strain Phoenix experiences on a daily basis. From the beginning of the story, the description of the setting alludes to a somber mood, “It was December—a bright frozen day in the early morning.