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Thesis For A Worn Path

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Prompt #3: “A story that takes place in a wild and natural setting might include characters struggling against nature to survive.”

Working Thesis: Phoenix Jackson, an elderly African-American woman on a journey through rural areas faces human and non-human obstacles whilst traveling to a town and ultimately why she made the long travel for her sick grandson’s medicine shows true compassionate love.

Welty, E. (1941). A Worn Path. A Curtain of Green and Other Stories by Eudora Welty. Reprinted by Russell & Volkening for the author. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
A Worn Path begins in a descriptive analysis of old woman Phoenix Jackson. The surrounding setting, nature sounds and details of Phoenix are described in great detail to portray the struggles an elderly …show more content…

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

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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

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Yes, the journey is a great risk especially in her condition but Eudora shows how Phoenix’s spirit causes her to persevere in the face of adversity. In the end, Phoenix Jackson reached her destination and received the medicine for her grandchild. What starts out as a long quest filled with dangerous obstacles ends in a meaningful lesson for the readers’. Eudora Welty short story, “A Worn Path,” exemplifies what it means to persevere through any tribulations that stand in the way of your goals.

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In the story, Phoenix gets caught on a thorny bush that she didn’t see in passing. She encounters a log, and has to lift her skirt high and legs to get over it. She is

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Because “A Worn Path” is set during Christmas, critics associate it with a religious pilgrimage. (American Writer) “She went on, parting her way from side to side.” (Welty) “This is similar to Moses parting the red sea.” (Isaacs)

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Literary Analysis on “A Worn Path”       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. Phoenix shares a name with a creature which reflects her indefatigable nature, her constant striving towards her goal, as well as her unflagging optimism and high spirits (Goodman).

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Racism In A Worn Path

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Some references even suggest Phoenix may have once been a slave; such as the chains the old woman feels on her feet as she climbs the path uphill. Racial inequality is unmistakably clear when the old woman falls in the ditch and is confronted by the white hunter. One would believe the hunter calling Phoenix Granny to be a harmless reference to her age; however, Granny is a term coined by southern whites in the thirties and forties and refers to a single elderly black woman: a granny is an old black woman who takes care of the white

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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.

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We see love in Phoenix Jackson by how she takes the long journey to get medicine for her grandson. In the story Eudora Welty enhances the unbeatable love Phoenix Jackson has for her grandson through drawbacks she faces, her health along with age, and taking the journey. Throughout the course of her journey she forgets her purpose, in her heart firm love she has for her grandson always lead her back on her path. Phoenix Jackson faces many obstacles on her journey but, none of them distract her from reaching the medical building for her grandsons sake. The hunter insisted “ Now you go on home, Granny!”

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