A Worn Path: Struggle for Racial Equality

People in the story seem to have a reverence for the Phoenix which is shown when a white woman stops to help her tie her shoe which would be highly unlikely in the south at the time. Another incident is when the women at the drugstore in town gives her money for no reason.

Phoenix Jackson, the main character, is a small, old African American woman who goes on a journey for a purpose that is unknown at the beginning of the story. Although Phoenix has made this trip many times, something is different about this trip. Throughout her journey, Phoenix faces many obstacles and hardships. The author uses symbolism and, later, gives the reader awareness of Phoenix’s character while, hopefully, teaching a lesson about life. In “A Worn Path”, Eudora Welty uses the symbols of the name “Phoenix”, life and death, and the main characters’ age throughout the story.

In “A Worn Path,” Welty seems to have a view of power, being someone who has authority and a big influence on others. Old Phoenix states “Out of my way, all you foxes, owls, beetles, jack rabbits, coons, and wild animals! . . . Keep out from under these feet, little bobwhites. . . Keep the big wild hogs out of my path. Don’t let none these come running my direction. I got a long way” (1006). Old Phoenix says this because she is a person of power, and does not want someone to tell her what she should or should not do, with her knowing what her goal is. She does not want anything but to achieve her goal, as she says “Seem like there is chains about my feet, time I get this far.. Something always take a hold of me on this hill – pleads I should stay” (1007). That statement was about the path she walked being on a hill, but being able to achieve getting there, even though her feet feel like there are chains holding her back.

“A Worn Path” is set in the South during a time of racism and injustice. Welty utilizes the setting of the story to help readers understand the struggles and hardships faced along the path and in Phoenix Jackson’s life. Welty also allows readers to fathom the battle faced by all African Americans, especially in the South, during this time period. As Phoenix Jackson makes her way pass the cotton field, Welty describes a figure as, “...something tall, black, and skinny there, moving before her.” As a direct effect of Phoenix Jackson’s surroundings and the time period she is living in, she makes the assumption that the figure was a black male that had been lynched. These were the harsh conditions that she had been exposed to most of her life and yet still she persevered through it all. Phoenix is given an opportunity to give up when Welty writes “Over she went in the ditch, like a little puff of milkweed,” but she finds strength to continue her journey. When the hunter points his gun at Phoenix, she

The story focuses on her determination to help her grandson who is ill because he swallowed lye when he was younger. She faces all types of obstacles like racism, poverty, hard travel, the cold weather and her old age. Phoenix starts by making her way through the wilderness and says, “Out of my way, all you foxes, owls, beetles, jack rabbits, coons and wild animals. . . Keep out from under these feet, little bob-whites” since its winter the animals will probably hibernating and this symbolizes her easy travel. The old lady without hesitation continues her journey up the hill. She says, “Seems like there is chains about my feet, time I get this far.” She uses the chains as a sign of slavery since she is a very old lady she might have been through that rough period of time.

For many decades, Eudora Welty’s genius has given rise to a community of critical thinking and debate. In “’A Worn Path’: The Eternal Quest of Welty’s Phoenix Jackson,” James Robert Saunders (1992) explores the various interpretations of Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” by fellow critics who seek to make sense of the subtle and explicit symbolism throughout the story. Saunders goes on to analyze proposed theories such as that Phoenix Jackson, the protagonist, was symbolic of a religious figure and that Jackson’s grandson is in fact dead, but concludes that these arguments lack or ignore evidence throughout the story and pertinent history. Instead, Saunders proposes that Jackson is an individual with special abilities that allow her to protect nature and the innocent through the power of love (Saunders). In my analysis “’A Worn Path’: The Path of the Phoenix,” I acknowledge the deliberate use of the setting and character background implemented by Welty and conclude that Jackson is “the embodiment of the hopes and struggles African Americans experienced in a post-Civil War era.” Consequentially, after analyzing Saunders’ article, my argument that Jackson is an emblem of African American evolution finds strong support in the three points Saunders makes: Jackson lives up to her name, protects the innocent, and remains determined even against all odds.

Whipped, beaten and bloodied until there was no more energy left to give. African-American slaves in the early American world had to endure and struggle through some of the most gruesome punishments and on occasion, it was for no reason at all. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass displays some occasions where he, even as a young boy, was subjected to some of these terrible events. Douglass plays on the pathos of his readers right from the beginning by tugging at our emotions with the story of his Aunt Hester. Does Douglass portray his violence to be over the top? Some might say yes, but even if it’s over the top, it is because it’s accurate.

“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

The symbolism in this story relates essentially to the two sided connotation of "Phoenix" that is insinuated in the

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,

In 1941 which was the publishing date for the story, we can relate to the narrator was trying to show how black people used to suffer before from slavery, even after slavery ended, they suffered from racial and gender discrimination and, but for Phoenix it was only a lesson for her and she gained strength from it. A Worn Path time period was tough on any black and women, Phoenix was strong and didn't allow such a thing to restrain her will to get the medicine, in the situation where the White man pointed the gun at Phoenix, she responded “ “No, sir, I seen plenty go off closer by, in my day, and for less than what I done”() she held still, not moving for a second, which relates to what she have learned back in her days, where she lived to

The depiction of race within the story isn't simplistic. instead, through Phoenix’s reports with different people, Welty indicates the complicated ways that blacks and whites interact within the early 1940s South, with unmarried encounters transferring inside moments from kindness to risk, helpfulness to command. Symbolically, perhaps all of sudden, a black dog and a black scarecrow derail Phoenix’s adventure, suggesting how the reality in their race disadvantages black human beings. meanwhile, a white hunter who in the beginning helps Phoenix to her feet after she’s fallen then points a gun at her, threatening her in an almost casual way, a mirrored image of the privilege afforded to white people at that time inside the South and the essential

In addition, the author also intends to emphasize his concern of the physical mistreatment of blacks in the period of slavery. This is done mainly through his presentation of the symbolism of the whip used to exert pain and brutality on the population of

In A Worn Path by Eudora Welty we have the theme of struggle, sacrifice, determination, perseverance, selflessness and love. Taken from her A Curtain of Green and Other Stories collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realises that Welty may be using the setting of the story to explore the theme of struggle. Throughout Phoenix’s journey into town there is a sense that she is struggling, that in many ways she is being hindered in her attempt to get into town. Some examples of the struggle Phoenix encounters include the incident when she tears her skirt on the thorny bush, how she has to go through a barbed-wire fence and later when she falls into the ditch. Each of these incidents may be important as it is possible that Welty is not only highlighting to the reader the struggles that Phoenix encounters on her journey into town but it is also possible that Welty is highlighting the struggles that many (if not all) African Americans at the time the story was published (1941) encountered while trying to make some progress in their lives. At the time the story was published racial equality would not have existed in America (particularly in the South where the story is set) and African Americans would have been treated as second class citizens with many white Americans considering themselves to have been superior to African Americans.