Obstacles In Eudora Welty's A Worn Path

With the dawn of the twentieth century came the realization that many traditional notions about civilization, culture, warfare, and even the world were entering into unknown territory. Through various sequential and cumulating events at the beginning of the era, including World War I, a new wave of thinking emerged. Characterized in literature with themes of bewilderment, uncertainty, and the apparent meaninglessness of life, Modernism reflected the devastation and insecurity left by the Great War that swept away the optimism and idealism of the past. In the short stories "In Another Country" by Ernest Hemingway, "The Corn Planting" by Sherwood Anderson, "The Far and the Near" by Thomas Wolfe and "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty, these themes

More often than not, heros can be people who aren’t depicted as supernatural humans, with various powers. The more common heros are those with the trait of bravery, alongside various other traits. In “A Worn Path”, a grandmother by the name of Phoenix Jackson goes on a quest to obtain medicine for her sick grandson. The following traits from Joseph Campbell’s hero chart are what defines Phoenix Jackson as a hero.

Pheonix Jackson’s grandson is dead because she shows signs of dementia, she hesitates when asked about how the boy is doing, and she says words that imply the boy isn’t changing. The story “ A Worn Path” follows the difficult trip routinely made by Pheonix on foot to a nearby town for her grandson’s medicine which he needs for his swollen throat.

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. After a somewhat strenuous conversation with

Phoenix fails to remember her grandson, who is the reason she has to make a dangerous trip. After she realizes this, she does not get embarrassed and feel defeated, like some people with memory problems. She just continues on with her trip so that she can get her grandson’s medicine. Secondly, Phoenix overcomes difficult and harmful circumstances while she is making the adventure to the city. Welty writes, “I in the thorny bush," she said. "Thorns, you doing your appointed work. Never want to let folks pass, no sir”. While Phoenix is on her way, her dress unfortunately gets caught in a bush. This complicates what she is going through, especially since she has so much trouble with making sure that her dress does not tear. Additionally, the narrator says, “So she left that tree, and had to go through a barbed-wire fence. There she had to

Eudora Welty uses many literary elements in her short story, “A Worn Path,” to allow the reader to stay engaged throughout its entirety. Although there are many literary elements present in this story, there are three that Welty focuses intently on. She uses elements such as imagery, symbolism, and motifs to draw the reader’s attention. It is important for an author to write their story in a way that can be understood but also enjoyed. In “A Worn Path”, Welty focuses in on the elements, such as, symbolism, motifs, and imagery and writes a story that has great meaning and can be discovered by the reader when looked at carefully.

It is important for people to overcome the obstacles they are faced with. Obstacles allow us to learn and become successful. In novels a character will often be faced with a problem. Just like a book, everybody has their own story filled with challenges. Recently I have read two novels that deal with sensitive topics and obstacles. Several years ago my grandma had very serious health issues. Each of these examples showcase the fact that it is important for everybody to experience obstacles in their life.

Eudora Welty’s “A worn path” is a short story illustrating the determination of an old woman going on a ritual journey for getting a medicine for her grandson and facing each challenge with success. The story shows the protagonist of Eudora Welty's short story "A Worn Path" an elderly woman named Phoenix Jackson. Welty’s description of the old women realizes on her usage of three artistic tools: imagery, foreshowing, and symbolism. The Three artistic tools will show how “A worn path” of an old women journey begins to achieve her goal.

A historical great piece of literary art, “A Worn Path” published in 1941, is a story of an old woman’s journey to town through the forest. The setting is rural Mississippi in the 1940’s, a time when racism was a way of life and a trip to town, especially for an old black woman, was often a long journey and thus a trip not often taken. The old woman’s name is Phoenix Jackson and she has quite an adventurous trip through the forest to town. One is made to believe this is just an average walk down the path for this old woman; however the reader is entertained by Phoenix’s mannerisms and realizes there is deeper meaning of the story. This story, though short in length, host an abundance of symbolism, racial issues

    The short story “A Worn Path,” written by Eudora Welty, depicts the journey of an elderly black woman named Phoenix Jackson who walks from her home to the city of Natchez in need of medicine for her sick grandson. Phoenix experiences many obstacles that do not interrupt her trip, but rather make her a stronger woman for overcoming them. In A Worn Path, Welty illustrates her journey through several key symbols: the name Phoenix, the path, and the windmill.

In the story “A Worn Path” Phoenix Jackson was an old African American women. She takes a small journey that can be an allegory of someone's whole life. The journey had hard and easy parts, beauty, danger, and confusion. But her quest was to get the medicine for her sick grandson who laid at home waiting for her return. Phoenix was a delusional yet heroic, caring grandmother who would stop at nothing to get what she needed. She is an interesting character because she can have characteristics that are good and bad. The two characteristics that are related to her the most was she can be delusional but yet a heroic person.

The Phoenix: The Phoenix symbolizes rebirth. The Phoenix is known for rising from the ashes after being burned. In the story after the city has been destroyed, Granger compares the destruction to the bird. Both are destroyed and rise from the destruction. So if Granger and the others use their knowledge, they won’t be like the Phoenix and prevent destruction.

The scene opens with the detail that she is “an old negro woman” (as cited in Clugston, 2011, sec.6.5). The reader is also able to determine that she is in the American South in the 1940s or earlier. Trial and adversity is part of this character’s birthright and yet throughout the entire story, we see her continually persevering through obstacles in nature, symbolic of life. Phoenix’s perseverance is the result of her purpose within her

However, throughout the story sometimes Phoenix has us second guessing whether or not she’s gonna make it to her destination. Seeing that, she is an elderly woman traveling alone through the woods during the winter. In every way possible she lets us know that no matter what obstacles are thrown at her she was going to get the medicine her grandson needs. But, living during this time it was not safe for her to be traveling alone with no help.