Freedom In Eudora Welty's A Worn Path

When they first faced their challenge, they struggled. But their common ability of survival stepped in and helped them get through hard times. Their main strength is their ability to adapt to their surroundings and that can be a huge advantage to others. This is only one of many similarities these characters share that plays such a big role in their road to success. We’ll first talk about the differences between these two female warriors.

In the work, “A Worn Path, “Welty has developed a short story that uses characterization, symbolism, imagery, and conflict in a hero’s journey. Phoenix says “Thorn bushes and barbed-wire fences, log bridges and hills are major barriers for her.” (Welty, Edora 2/5) As Phoenix pursues this heroic challenge she acknowledges the temptation and fear built in her crossing a deep forest in the health condition she is found in. Welty gives the character the willingness having an ambition to conquer her journey. Upon many other Phoenix Jackson was well aware of what she was approaching making her build fear. However crossing the first threshold of overcome the first obstacle in the journey Phoenix acknowledges her hero’s journey has just yet begun.

This line exposes the longing to travel that some African American females in Rainey’s audience felt, but might have not acted on because it was not viewed as acceptable. However, the more Rainey sang songs about the African American female traveling and moving towards her own freedom, the more normalized that idea became. Gertrude “Ma” Rainey’s, songs “Traveling Blues” and “Lost Wandering Blues” are two of her works that share the theme of traveling. While they both share the same theme, “Traveling Blues” epitomizes how the ability to travel became an expression of independence, and “Lost Wandering Blues” illustrates the use of traveling as a tool for personal discovery for the African American female. Moreover, Rainey’s decision to sing

Written Component/Critique Selective Life Summary: Born in the early 1800’s, Araminta Harriet Ross Tubman was just a young girl who knew nothing other than the need to survive. Raised in a slave ridden Maryland, Tubman had to adapt to her situations and learn to keep moving forward with what she was given. Reaching a certain point in her life and traveling North in 1849, Harriet Tubman chose to go back and help her family and others who sought what she had. Freedom. Throughout her life, Harriet Tubman was a slave, nurse, spy, and a crucial aspect of the Underground Railroad.

Also, she walks the long worn path everyday just for medicine for her dead grandson that died from lye poisoning, according to the nurses at the end of the story, they say “she makes these trips on the regular”, “she lives way back off Old Natchez Trace” which probably means that she walks an exceedingly long time just for “medicine” that their is no use for. Furthermore, another reason why Phoenix Jackson is delusional is because

Maya Angelou once said, “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” This quote of hers invokes strength and courage through her tone and use of stylistic devices. Maya Angelou beliefs on the human spirit and freedom are of strength and courage. Her beliefs are interpreted by her style from four of her works of literature: an excerpt from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, “New Directions,” “Caged Bird,” and “Woman Work.” From an excerpt in her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou’s tone is personal and philosophical, as well as the dialect reflects her belief of

The Worn Path The Worn Path is a story about a journey of a poor and old black grandma who just wants to arrive to town. In the story “The Worn Path” by Eudora Welty, the symbolism of Phoenix’s trip are perseverance and sacrifice that she had in her path to town, and also it represents her life with her constants difficulties visualized with the lone dog, the scarecrow, and the hunter. The perseverance that Phoenix has in order to save her grandson is admirable. When she starts to get dry and tired because of the long trip, she hallucinated things, but it did not stop her to continuo walking and finally she find the Mississippi river. “In a ravine she went where a spring was silently flowing through a hollow log.

Welty does a phenomenal job of using imagery to subtly illustrate the racial hardships and inequalities of that time period (Sykes 151). During Phoenix’s journey, she endured endless struggles if not against “scurrying hogs, then against the thorny bush that “never want to let folks pass” (Welty 143). The endless amount of struggles Phoenix faced symbolized racial conflict African Americans faced despite being newly freed from slavery. Other aspects of imagery were demonstrated through the example of the marble cake, chained feet, thorny bush, and the windmill Phoenix bought for her grandson. For example, “the vision of a slice of black and white cake appears to be a reference to the idea of integration in the South” (Sykes 151-152).

Many people look at life as a path and that is exactly what Welty used that to represent Phoenix Jackson’s life. Phoenix was faced with various obstacles on her journey. Her dress is caught on a thorn bush, she must cross a creek where a log has fallen, crawl under barbed-wire, and maneuver though cotton and old corn fields (Welty 264-265). While these are obstacles that are dependent on the setting it is also a figurative meaning for the lives of African Americans during the period in American history. When Phoenix falls in the whole and the hunter comes along and helps her out it allows the reader to see a snip it of what it was like for a white male and black female to interact with each other.

In the short story, “A Worn Path”, Eudora Welty uses symbolism to tell the story of Phoenix Jackson’s determination and resilience in life. Welty’s story depicts the journey of a black woman as she walks a path she has walked numerous times in her life. During Phoenix’s trek she is faced with several experiences that could have warranted her to abandon her mission. The first experience, in my opinion, was during the first portion of her trip; to which she states, “something always take a hold of me on this hill- pleads I should stay” (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012, p. 388). After crossing the thorny path and over a log on the creek, Phoenix sets down to rest and imagines a boy bringing her a piece of marble cake.

In Anne Moody’s memoir, she is faced with many obstacles and one of the major ones is her own mother, Toosweet. Toosweet resists the urge for the movement to continue because she projects her fear of change very clearly while Anne on the other hand is desperately aspiring change for blacks in the southern community. Toosweet sustains a hold on Anne encouraging her to live her life as everyone else and so she continues standing as a barrier between Anne and the movement. Yet, Anne finds all the more reason to continue her work as a member of the NAACP and Core. Anne not only wants to end segregation but to prove to her mother that she is capable of such an advance.

At my old house on 2901 S St. Francis Lane the way in was quite a challenge. When driving in it required many left turns and following twisting rotes. When you got to St. Francis your car wouldn 't require you to gas, gravity took over. The hill would alway be a pain in the winter. When the road was re-paved in the summer of 2010, they said that the rollers had trouble down and over it.

Their experiences with slavery helped black women to redefine womanhood. Harriet Tubman, a leader in the Underground Railroad and a strong female role model, successfully crossed the Mason-Dixon line into freedom in 1849. After Tubman arrived in Pennsylvania, she decided that she had no right to freedom while others were in bondage and resolved to bring her family North. When she arrived at her former master’s plantation, she discovered that her husband had taken another wife and devoted herself to the cause of the Underground Railroad. The independence and leadership she demonstrated was contrary to the view of women at the time.

In Afghanistan and Pakistan women lacked various rights under Taliban rule that limited their freedoms, but conditions have improved since the Taliban relinquished their power, which shows that given the opportunity women can become independent. Under the Taliban rule, women could not go outside unless they had a male chaperone, but since the Taliban left women now have the freedom to be outside on their own. When Farah was living