Preview

A Worn Path Phoenix Jackson Character Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
76 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
A Worn Path Phoenix Jackson Character Analysis
The well-known quality of phoenix is the bird’s ability to rise from the ashes. In Eudora Welty’s, “A Worn Path”, Phoenix Jackson, an elderly African-American woman from the 1940’s, is no different. Phoenix Jackson is traveling from her country home to the city so she can gather some medicine for her sick grandson. The reader learns things about Phoenix Jackson while she is on her path. Phoenix Jackson demonstrates her compassion, her bravery, and her determination.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    It was December, around Christmas time, in the 1940s. Children were running and playing in the snow. It was during the time at the end of the Civil War. After reading Eudora Welty’s, “A Worn Path,” and understanding the story we must consider an old Negro woman name Phoenix Jackson, a worn rough path in Natchez that she traveled, and the prejudices she had to endure to get medication for her sick grandson.…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I feel that I connect most with Bear a character in the book The Darkest Path. Bear is a dog however, he has many humanlike qualities that make him an essential part of the story.…

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty is a short story about an elderly woman by the name of Phoenix Jackson. Eudora Welty has a way of cutting to the chase, but is also clear that she loves her characters. Phoenix is a memorable character because she is full of love. One can admire her perseverance and her willingness to sacrifice for someone she loves. Welty shows us, rather than telling us. As we read along, it is almost like we are walking with Phoenix down the path. In spite of being an elderly woman, Phoenix Jackson does not use loneliness and racism as an excuse.…

    • 214 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Eudora Welty's short story "A Worn Path" takes place on an early December morning which deals with a very elderly and frail black woman, Phoenix; and the hardships inherent in her life. Phoenix Jackson is the main character, she is characterized as a strong poor elderly woman because of her appearance, personality and determination. For example, the narrator states, that Phoenix wore “a dark striped dress reaching down to her shoe tops, and an equally long apron of bleached sugar sacks, with a full pocket: all neat and tidy, but every time she took a step she might have fallen over her shoelaces, which dragged from her unlaced shoes " (475). The dark striped dress and long apron made of sugar sacks symbolizes poverty because of her hardships in life; this is the type of clothing most Negro women slaves wore back in the slavery days. The darkness of her dress represents her state of depression. The stripes on her dress symbolizes the prison bars showing she was held captive as a slave for some time.…

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Eudora Welty, author of A Worn Path, formated her narrator so that it would not have any part in the story other than telling it. From this, the reader is able to characterize the protagonist, Phoenix Jackson, as a woman who is very determined and loving and focused on one goal, bring medicine home to help her sick grandson. As a reader, one can tell that Phoenix is a very determined grandmother, for she had to face many challenges in order to help her grandson. On lines 35 to 37 the author describes that in order to get to her destination, Phoenix must cross over a creek on a log. The way that the author describes her going across is that she levels her cane, and fiercely marches across the log. Within the first three lines, the author states that Phoenix is “an old Negro woman.” When a person ages, then they may not be able to do as many things as…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Subordinate characters, whose roles are seemingly unimportant, are thermically critical in Richard Connell’s and Eudora Welty’s short story. A subordinate character often either motivates or challenges the protagonist to do something. The subordinate characters from “The Most Dangerous Game” and “A Worn Path” help the reader understand how the protagonist feels and believes. Both stories are similar since their subordinate characters help express the protagonist’s thoughts, mindset, and characteristics.…

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” Maya Angelou describes her life as a young awkward black girl in the American South during the 1930s and subsequently in California during the 1940s. when Maya is only three her parents divorce and ship Maya and her older brother, Bailey, to live with their paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson, in rural Stamps, Arkansas. Annie, who Maya and Bailey call Momma, runs the only store in the black section of Stamps and becomes the central moral figure in Maya’s childhood. It is actually interesting how much clout she has in the town for a black woman.…

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this true story, Salva started off as a young boy who thought he would be coming home from school everyday to have a fresh bowl of milk and spend time with his lovely family. He never thought that one day he would not be coming back home. In the nonfiction novel, A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, the author focuses on how Salva Mawien Dut Ariik survived his treacherous journey, how his character changed from a young boy to a young adult, and how he worked toward his goal step by step and never gave up. Salva was just an ordinary boy until war struck and he was separated from his family.…

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    To Kill A Mockingbird is a novel that is artistically written. Through the situations the “mockingbirds” go through living in Maycomb County, many important life lessons are taught not only to the characters but also to the reader. The dilemmas at hand are creative ways of teaching these lessons. Scout’s growth throughout the novel is symbolic of the growth of the town in many issues surrounding racial prejudice, sexism, and the usage of pigeon…

    • 75 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The policeman is a round character in this story. He is not your stereotypical policeman as he had given many candy bars to Jackson Jackson over time. He knew that Jackson Jackson needed to go to the detox center but did not force him to. Officer Williams’ internal conflict is that he shows signs of favoritism toward Jackson Jackson. For example, he was kicking Jackson Jackson in the ribs without knowing it was him. Once he found out it was Jackson Jackson, he offered to help recover the regalia and gave him money. He wants to help Jackson Jackson as much as he can in hopes that Jackson Jackson makes the right choices. The irony is that he contributed thirty bucks so that Jackson Jackson can recover the regalia yet he knew that Jackson Jackson…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “If you don’t accept all of us, you accept none of us.” - Zen Wander from Wander Over Yonder in the episode The Wanders…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Time Worn Tradition:A Comparison of Values in Eudora Welty 's "A Worn Path" and Shirley Jackson 's "The Lottery"Families and society pass on traditions as a way of spreading certain knowledge or ways of life from generation to generation. People often consider traditions to be ancient, and therefore of the highest integrity and moral meaning. But what do you do when these traditions seem to fall short over time? It is the responsibility of every individual to choose for themselves what ways of life they wish to keep intact for their generation and which ones they wish to dispose of. This concept is brought into light with the ideas of two fictional characters. Phoenix Jackson displays the values of tradition in Eudora Welty 's "A Worn Path"…

    • 1191 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Eudora Welty

    • 834 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In each of the roadblocks that she encounters, Phoenix Jackson metaphorically confronts the struggles African Americans face. While traveling to town to acquire medicine for her grandson, Phoenix must untangle her dress from a thorny bush. She must climb through a barbed-wire fence. She gets knocked into a ditch by a loose dog. She faces the barrel of a white man's gun. Though these events could have happened to anyone, Welty intends to allude to racism. The hunter would have helped Phoenix to her destination, but didn’t because she is black. The attendant at the health clinic would have addressed her more respectfully than "Speak up, Grandma... Are you deaf?" (Welty 97). And if she was white, she would not be facing these trials alone; someone would have joined her on the journey or simply gone to get the medicine for her. Each of these events, though, represents a larger picture: an unkind racial slur, a separate and run-down restroom, or a hateful stare, humbling a colored person to hang his head in shame.…

    • 834 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Harkness Worn Path

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Eudora Welty published “A Worn Path” in 1941. These years were the times after the Great Depression took place and many African- Americans and rural southerners were still in poverty. Along the path Phoenix Jackson takes, she encounters many problems and the story line becomes a series of challenges she must overcome, which mirror her conditions in society. The significance of the story is the way Phoenix Jackson must face racial discrimination as part of her everyday life. The story does not subjectively focus on this theme, but it does include it. For instance, the white hunter refers to her as Granny in an arrogant way. The attendant, and the nurse are likely white, for they also treat her condescendingly, the shopper calls her Grandma, and the nurse calls her Aunt Phoenix.…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the short story “A Worn Path”, Eudora Welty clearly emphasizes an important relationship between Phoenix Jackson and birds. Phoenix’s name is most defiantly the biggest indication of bird symbolism. Her appearance is another relationship between her and the legend of the phoenix. A phoenix is described as having a beautiful red, gold and feathery coat. At the beginning of the story Phoenix is also defined as having a, “a golden color underneath, and two knobs of her cheeks were illuminated by a yellow burning under the dark”(620). Also, Phoenix’s hair is tied back in a “red rag”. However, Phoenix’s actions also indicate her relationship with a phoenix. Throughout a phoenix’s life cycle it is know to make long journeys to a place where it restores its life, engulfing in flames and resurrecting from the ashes. Phoenix Jackson makes long trips to the city of Natchez to acquire medicine for her grandchild. The medicine and journey is an example of the restoration of life. Not only to renew the life of her sick grandchild but also her own.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays