Phoenix Jackson Ans the Modern Day Woman
Courtney Mosley
English 213-12:00
June 4, 2013
Phoenix Jackson and the Modern Day Woman
A phoenix is a mythical bird of great beauty fabled to live 500 or 600 years in the Arabian wilderness, to burn itself on a funeral pyre, and to rise from its ashes in the freshness of youth and live through another cycle of years: often an emblem of immortality or of reborn idealism or hope; a person or thing of peerless beauty or excellence; a person or thing that has become renewed or restored after suffering calamity or apparent annihilation; A person or thing regarded as uniquely remarkable in some respect. Eudora Welty, in her character Phoenix Jackson, creates humanity's counterpart of the phoenix firebird from oriental tradition (Wampler 4 June 2013). Although Phoenix Jackson can not lay claim to the immortality manifested by consuming fiery rebirths (as does the mythological bird), she possesses a fiery spirit and is consumed by love for her grandchild (Wampler 4 June 2013). Phoenix Jackson is wise, confident, fearless, tenacious, courageous, and has a clear goal in mind, which is to get her grandson’s medicine despite any obstacle that she may face. Phoenix Jackson can be summed up in one word which is noble. All women should have the characteristics of Phoenix Jackson but some of those characteristics are being lost with the evolving society.
Phoenix Jackson is an elderly African American woman walking into town on a cold winter morning to get medicine for her sick grandson. One aspect of Phoenix’s likeness to the mythical phoenix is their journey before they die. The Natchez Trace is an old highway that runs from Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi (Natchez Trace 27 May 2013). By 1800 it was the busiest in the American South (Natchez Trace 27 May 2013). Phoenix lives “a way back off the Old Natchez Trace,” which indicates that the journey along with the fact that it is December is difficult for her (A Worn Path n.d.). The obstacles she
English 213-12:00
June 4, 2013
Phoenix Jackson and the Modern Day Woman
A phoenix is a mythical bird of great beauty fabled to live 500 or 600 years in the Arabian wilderness, to burn itself on a funeral pyre, and to rise from its ashes in the freshness of youth and live through another cycle of years: often an emblem of immortality or of reborn idealism or hope; a person or thing of peerless beauty or excellence; a person or thing that has become renewed or restored after suffering calamity or apparent annihilation; A person or thing regarded as uniquely remarkable in some respect. Eudora Welty, in her character Phoenix Jackson, creates humanity's counterpart of the phoenix firebird from oriental tradition (Wampler 4 June 2013). Although Phoenix Jackson can not lay claim to the immortality manifested by consuming fiery rebirths (as does the mythological bird), she possesses a fiery spirit and is consumed by love for her grandchild (Wampler 4 June 2013). Phoenix Jackson is wise, confident, fearless, tenacious, courageous, and has a clear goal in mind, which is to get her grandson’s medicine despite any obstacle that she may face. Phoenix Jackson can be summed up in one word which is noble. All women should have the characteristics of Phoenix Jackson but some of those characteristics are being lost with the evolving society.
Phoenix Jackson is an elderly African American woman walking into town on a cold winter morning to get medicine for her sick grandson. One aspect of Phoenix’s likeness to the mythical phoenix is their journey before they die. The Natchez Trace is an old highway that runs from Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi (Natchez Trace 27 May 2013). By 1800 it was the busiest in the American South (Natchez Trace 27 May 2013). Phoenix lives “a way back off the Old Natchez Trace,” which indicates that the journey along with the fact that it is December is difficult for her (A Worn Path n.d.). The obstacles she