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.…
“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.…
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.…
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…
Location was of great importance in Welty’s stories. She believed that place was what made stories seem real and complete. One of Welty’s famous quotes is, “A place that ever was lived in is like a fire that never goes out.” Jackson was her home all of her life, and it was what she knew best. She incorporated this familiarity and intimacy so flawlessly into her work and it is this that draws the reader in. It is so apparent that heart is put into her writings. Although most of her stories are set in the deep south, most critics agree that her work is all-inclusive and not narrowed just to southern living, language, and customs (Michiko). She is able to detach from what she knows best and observe other aspects of the world. Neither of her parents were originally from the south, and this may have had an influence on her work in being more universal. Living in New York for a few years also broadened her horizons. She said it best when she said, “Through travel I first became aware of the outside world; it was through travel that I found my own introspective way into becoming a part of it.” With all of her experiences tied together piece by piece, story by story, Eudora Welty became a well-known, award winning writer…
In each of the roadblocks that she encounters, the protagonist Phoenix Jackson in Eudora Welty 's "A Worn Path" metaphorically confronts the underlying 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, were she white, to her destination. The attendant at the health clinic would have addressed her more respectfully than, "Speak up, Grandma... Are you deaf?" (Welty 169). And were she 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.…
Eudora Welty is one of our country’s great authors. Born in the south and raised to embrace her artistic side, Welty has bestowed many engrossing short stories upon the literary world. Welty’s southern upbringing allowed her to write masterful tales that focus on an individual’s contrasting romantic view of life verses the reality of living that has critics both praising and condemning her work.…
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.…
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.…
"Her eyes were blue with age. Her skin had a pattern all its own of…
In conclusion the short story “A worn path” by Eudora Welty is about a main character called Phoenix Jackson. She is loving,daring and decisisve.One technique used by the author is when she expalined why the title is “a worn path.”This is because Phoenix has used this route to go to the town that it has become “worn out” or used to much.I think that this shows the readers why the title is “a worn path” and gives the readers an insight to life in the…
Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” is a story that emphasizes the natural symbolism of the surroundings. The main character in the story, Phoenix Jackson, is an old black woman who seeks out to find medicine for her sick nephew. This story contains a motif, which is the continuous walking of Phoenix Jackson throughout her journey. She lives in the pinewoods and faces the challenging experience of walking through the snowy, frozen earth to get to the hospital in the city of Natchez. Phoenix Jackson is a very caring person, and is in love with life. Although she is very old, it seems that she has many years ahead of her. Eudora Welty brings realism into the story describing the realities of being old.…
Determination, strength, hope, endurance, perseverance, and love are only a few words to describe the readers feelings while reading this story. The author, Eudora Welty, screams-silently through her gently placed words in story, “A Worn Path”. The inspiring and encouraging phrases spoken to someone, “never give up”, “keep fighting”, “never back down”, are the unspoken feeling through the characters perseverance, determination, and love. The tone in the story is displayed through life of a black, negro-woman, who faces daily obstacles, during a time when black Americans were treated unjustly and unfairly. The traveled path she is traveling parallels the obstacles that African Americans experienced while on their journey for racial equality.…
Published in 1941, “A Worn Path” was written in a time of great moral decline as WWII, the Holocaust, and civil rights for African-Americans were all major issues. After being inspired by an old African-American lady she saw walking on the Natchez Trace, Eudora Welty wrote “A Worn Path” to remind the world of human life’s true meaning. The story follows Phoenix Jackson and her journey to Natchez to obtain throat-soothing medicine for her grandson, and the story ultimately represents the struggle African-Americans faced in their quest to obtain civil rights. To convey the racial struggles of the mid 1900’s, Welty uses Phoenix’s brittle physical…
A Worn Path(1940) is a story that talks about a very old African American woman named Phoenix. This strong old lady goes on a long journey by foot through a forest to bring her grandson the medicine he needs for his damaged throat. In this essay I will be analyzing and discussing the main character and themes which are love, determination and courage.…