Symbolism In A Worn Path

In Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path,” the character Phoenix Jackson is introduced. Phoenix Jackson is an uneducated, African-American woman without any family besides her sick grandson. Phoenix is the hero of this story and fits the role well by delivering much-needed medicine to her grandson. Phoenix shows many distinct traits that reveal her to be a hero to her grandson. The heroic feats she accomplishes pave a path that leads to her satisfaction as well as protection of her most beloved asset, her grandson. Throughout the story, Phoenix’s humble, caring, and determined character is displayed through her actions.

The story of A Worn Path goes perfectly with the title; it is a slow paced mood with lots of symbolic messages associated with life. Phoenix Jackson is just representation of one person reaching a simple goal but for her may take a little more effort. Bound by her physical ailments of being old, slow, and brittle she never turns back giving up her goal. Through the symbolic obstacles that author Eudora Welty so cleverly puts together, puts a sense of what everyone goes through in life. Eudora Welty brings forth a theme; with enough persistence and boldness we can overcome any obstacle that we face and reach our goal. As we go through our life no matter what circumstances we may be in, there should be nothing that keeps us from achieving. Just like Phoenix Jackson she works towards a goal so important to her heart; she doesn’t let any obstacle come in her way.

In life, individuals experience hard impediments to accomplish their fundamental objectives. Regardless of what life tosses at them, with a specific end goal to survive they should have a troublesome way. In "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty was conceived in Jackson, Mississippi. She began her profession as a columnist and sold many hit books. Her fundamental character in "A Worn Path" was Phoenix Jackson who experienced a great deal of hardships to enable her slight grandson to mend, who is experiencing lye harm. Phoenix was en route to the town of Natchez, Mississippi to the medical attendant's office. She was tested by creatures, individuals, and even a phantom. Phoenix Jackson was a decided, conquering, and kind-hearted old woman who is on an intense journey to get drugs for her grandson.

“A Worn Path” tells of an elderly and frail black woman and of the hardships that she must overcome. Upon reading the story, you realize that there is more to the story than meets the eye. She faces many roadblocks along her way. Phoenix faces many dangerous obstacles along her way, for a person of her age. She faces racism from some of characters she meets along the way. Phoenix faces inferior treatment, as though she is nothing more than some insect to squash. This story is about not only her ‘journey’ to Natchez, but also about her journey through society and the struggle to overcome the dangers, being treated inferior, and the racism.

At this point in the story, the strong symbolism of the phoenix is further displayed with the quote by one of the accompanying men, “’There was a silly damn bird called a Phoenix […] every few hundred years he built a pyre and burned himself up. […] every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. […] we've got one damn thing the Phoenix never had. We know the damn silly thing we just did. […] someday we'll stop making the goddam funeral pyres and jumping into the middle of them’” (Bradbury 70). “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty tells the story of Phoenix Jackson, an elderly woman who needs medicine annually for her grandson who ingested lye. The nearest hospital with his medicine is distant journey away. Throughout the story, Phoenix displayed perseverance for her grandson’s sake when she faced many hardships. This perseverance was shown during her conversation with the hunter when she said, “’I bound to go to town […] The time come around’” (Welty 91). Despite her age, Phoenix passed through each obstacle with little complaint as though the obstacles in her path were nothing more than landmarks down the road. Even though she lacked youth and vigor, she remarkably managed to make it to

In A Worn Path by Eudora Welty, Phoenix Jackson has many powerful, and noteworthy allusions. Phoenix Jackson fills in as a suggestion to a flying creature, the Phoenix. This fanciful animal ascents from his own cinders after death. Upon its resurrection, the Phoenix turns out to be significantly more grounded than it was in its past life. Like this flying creature, Phoenix Jackson faces numerous hardships in her trip for her grandson's drug, however picks up quality in defeating obstructions. Although Phoenix is halted by a white man who tries to prevent her from entering town, she kept still with "a furious and different radiation". Phoenix, subsequent to being criticized and offended, finds internal certainty and assurance to press forward. Much the same as the legendary animal, Phoenix Jackson transcends her difficulties in life and abandons her hardships previously. Eudora Welty makes this implication to delineate the ostensibly old and hallucinating Phoenix as a character of quality. In addition, Phoenix’s excursion is an allusion to Odysseus’s. The adventure isn't precisely an Odysseus voyage, but instead a

A worn path is a story full of strong mythological figures, but the one we see the most is the phoenix. The phoenix is a very large bird with coloring of scarlet and gold, we are told that Phoenix Jackson has gold coloring. From her appearance and also name we can actually tell that Phoenix is the physical embodiment of the mythological creature the phoenix. We have found that the most amazing power that the phoenix has is determination.

In “A Worn Path”, a short story by Eudora Welty, the main character, an old colored woman named Phoenix, slowly but surely makes her way down a “worn path” through the woods. Throughout her journey, she runs into many obstacles such as a thorny bush and a hunter. She overcomes these obstacles and continues with her travels. She finally reaches her destination, the doctor’s office, where she gets medicine for her sick grandson back home. Many critics have speculated that this short story represents the love a grandmother shows for her grandson. Others say this story represents life and death, where Phoenix represents an immortal figure. Dennis J. Sykes disagrees with the other critics by saying,

The short story A Worn Path is literally a story about an old woman taking a walk during the winter over a path she has known so well in order to get medicine for her grandson. When we magnify this story takimg a much closer look through an allegorical lens, we find this path to be representational of the old woman’s life. This paper will aim to provide symbolic references in order to support my reading that the path represents Phoenix Jackson’s memories throughout her life. This includes the trials and tribulations she encountered from slavery to freedom which she is now reflecting on while actively dying.

Section – 12068 Character Analysis Kazi Kabir Word Count: Character Analysis of Phoenix Jackson The short story “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty describes the determination and a forceful journey of an old lady knows as Phoenix Jackson. The setting of the short story tells the reader Jackson faced different kind of obstacles throughout of her journey. Jackson shows the reader people can do unusual and implausible things for their love one.

Phoenix is not any more or less perfect than the next character. She dresses in a long dress covered with her apron made of bleached sugar sacks and a head wrap covering her tight coils. She’s what one may call resourceful. She is also motivated as she takes her journey through the woods to town, but this motivation does not make her the perfect little Angel. In one encounter she runs into a young white hunter who is so tied up with trying to show off his hunting dog, he does not realize he drops a nickel. Being the human that Phoenix is, she smoothly recovers it as if it was her own and then a flash of guilt hits her as she says, “God watching me the whole time. I come to stealing”(Welty 467). This part of her journey shows that sometimes people commit the smallest crime to benefit themselves, or in Phoenix’s case her grandson.

Eudora Welty uses partial third person to evoke sympathy from the reader for Phoenix Jackson by revealing her thoughts in the conversations she has with herself. In these conversations, readers get a glimpse of her deteriorating mental clarity and health that comes with age. Her growing senility can be seen when she sees the scarecrow as a ghost. She tells the scarecrow, “who’d you be the ghost of? For I have heard of nary death close by” (Welty235). Readers are drawn into Phoenix’s hardship through statements like, “it was my memory had left me. there I sat and forgot why I had made the trip” (Welty 239). In everyday life, one can both sympathize and relate to her hardships, struggles, and triumphs. In “The Worn Path”, Eudora Welty describes Phoenix Jackson in a such a manner, the reader feels as if Phoenix is right in front of him/her; this can seen in the visual images of skin having “numberless branching wrinkles as though a whole tree stood in the middle of her forehead”, or “she is very old and small” (Welty233). My favorite description of Phoenix is “she walked slowly in the dark pine

Eudora Welty’s short story “A Worn Path” used the mythological bird the Phoenix through Phoenix Jackson in an interesting way. This story has been described as herculean following the since of labors or obstacles Phoenix Jackson went through. This story was a story of determination past all the obstacles Phoenix Jackson would face.

In the second paragraph of “A Worn Path”, Eudora Welty describes Phoenix Jackson’s physical appearance. Phoenix Jackson’s physical appearance represents the hard life that she has faced because of her race and gender and also the perseverance and spirit that she has gained from her hard life. The author describes her dress, shoelaces, wrinkles and, complexion to give us insight into the life of Phoenix Jackson and both African Americans and women at the time.

The main character in "A Worn Path" is named Phoenix Jackson. How the author describes Phoenix is as an old colored woman who is taking a trip. Through out the story readers can see that Phoenix is very committed, along with other things, to the journey she is taking. . Phoenix Jackson is a determined, frightless, and caring woman.