Realism In Eudora Welty's A Worn Path

In Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path,” Welty discusses the very lengths an individual is willing to go to in the name of love. The protagonist, Phoenix, an elderly black woman, takes a long and treacherous journey from the countryside to the nearest city, all in hopes of collecting medicine for her sick grandson. Welty’s characterization of Phoenix conveys a tone of perseverance; the character battles many negative forces of the wilderness throughout the story, but despite this, Phoenix’s reaction to her surroundings is one of a pleasant tone. In Welty’s “A Worn Path,” Welty uses contrasting diction and a lexicon that conveys layers of both dark and light storytelling, while Phoenix, a woman of great strength and tenacity, despite her age, defies all odds through her

The juxtaposition of two opposing stories is enough to get anyone’s head spinning. Comparing the glamorous production of the Chicago World Fair to the ominous destruction and killing caused by H.H. Holmes in the background is all the more interesting. Erik Larson’s 2003 nonfiction novel does just that. One would never think to relate murder to art until after reading this book. In The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson uses figurative language, imagery, and juxtaposition to create a vivid illustration of the contrast between good and evil in Chicago in 1893.

    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.

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

In the short story, “A Worn Path,” Eudora Welty introduces an elderly, African American, woman named Phoenix Jackson, whom for two or three years has made a long quest to town to get medicine for her ill grandson. Initially, Phoenix must overcome many obstacles to reach climax of her journey. Eudora Welty uses these obstacles to demonstrate the theme of her story, which is that Phoenix’s ambition/hope was the leading role in her preserving.

A tangerine is not only a citrus fruit, but also a county in Florida that is home to Paul Fisher and his older brother Erik. In the novel titled Tangerine by Edward Bloor, Paul Fisher, the protagonist, is not only bullied at school, but also at home by his brother, while having to live in the house where his dad lives in the illusion of the “Erik Fisher Football Dream.” In this new county that Paul moves to, he constantly has to put up with natural disasters like muck fires and sinkholes. The move from Houston, Texas to Tangerine County, Florida is the start of a new chapter for the Fisher family, especially Paul.

The story has a lot of symbols. The symbols in a story may be important or not important. In this story all the symbols are important. Symbols mean something in this story. Also a symbol can mean something in real life. Could be a person or an object. In this story there were a lot of different symbols with different

In Ann Petry’s The Street, the urban setting is portrayed as harsh and unforgiving to most. Lutie Johnson, however, finds the setting agreeable and rises to challenges posed by the city in order to achieve her goals. Petry portrays this relationship through personification, extended metaphor, and imagery.

Symbolism can use an object (like a tree of birds), or art, (like Melinda’s art project or Mr. Freeman's canvas) to represent an abstract idea. Laurie Halse Anderson uses symbolism to hint at a certain mood or emotion, rather than just blatantly saying it. So, the use of symbolism is important because it helps create meaning and emotion in a story. Symbolism makes a book fun to read, the symbolism produces a thought provoking work of art and it, (like in this book), adds meaning to seemingly unrelated objects and elicits emotions in the

The first literary element that plays a significantly important role in this story is symbolism. The most prominent example is involving Phoenix’s name. The name itself can have many different meanings and shows the reader a great implication of symbolism, “The references at the beginning of the story announce rather clearly that a comparison with the legendary bird is intended.” (Jones 1). Welty depicts Phoenix Jackson to resemble that of the ancient bird in both look

A story contains much more than just the words presented on the page. There are deeper meanings, hidden facts and underlying messages. At the heart of this idea is symbolism. Symbolism, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, is the practice of representing things by symbols, or of giving a symbolic character to objects. In the short stories “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell and “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin symbolism is an essential component of the story. The beauty of symbolism is that items can represent much more than their literal meaning and it allows the reader to make connections between multiple texts. From these two stories the most prominent items that stand for something other than itself are the canary and the heart. It can be argued that both items symbolize love and freedom.

Over time, our perceptions of freedom change. Escaping a cotton field may have been considered freedom in the nineteenth century, yet it could not be done without endurance. While our perceptions of freedom change, it’s likely that our ideas about how people obtain freedom do not change much. In “A Worn Path,” Eudora Welty describes a woman’s journey along a path to freedom, and she describes the obstacles that the woman encounters along the way. That woman, Phoenix Jackson, is able to overcome these obstacles despite her old age. In “A Worn Path,” Welty uses symbolism, setting, and characterization to reveal that the humans are capable of endurance when faced with obstacles such as death or small bushes.

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.

In “A Worn Path”, enduring is the word that best describes Phoenix because she undergoes issues with her mind, an arduous journey, and a racist man. First of all, Phoenix perseveres through all of the mental problems that she has. The narrator says, “She did not dare to close her eyes, and when a little boy brought her a plate with a slice of marble-cake on it she spoke to him. "That would be acceptable," she said. But when she went to take it there was just her own hand in the air” Phoenix obviously has issues when it comes to her mind. She imagines ridiculous scenarios and believes that they are real. Luckily, these mental problems do not cause her to give up on herself. Additionally, Welty writes,

Imagery is one of the artistic tools used in “A Wan Path”. In the short story Welty’s want the reader to be comfortable with Phoenix as a character. Welty describes Phoenix wearing a long dress reaching her shoe top and a long apron of bleached sugar sacks. When Phoenix talks aloud to herself the author wants the reader to imagine an old woman with characteristics of a warm, comical, young spirited woman side of her. The short story also uses images which evoke from the biblical imagery. Phoenix’s uses biblical connection to show the reader how important her story and the