Essay On Phoenix Jackson

A worn path is a story about a woman named Phoenix Jackson who needs to go a journey to town to get medicine for her sick grandson. It is a trip she has made before many times before (hence the title A worn Path) but there is something special about this trip, something different. In this paper I plan to dwell into the symbolism behind the Legend of the Phoenix and its relationship to her journey in the story. The legend of the Phoenix is about a fabled sacred bird of ancient Egyptians, said to come out of Arabia every 500 years to Heliopolis, where it burned itself on altar and rose again from its ashes young and beautiful; symbol of immortality. I think this story also represents Christian beliefs because the setting is

In Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path.” the main character Phoenix Jackson faces many different obstacles on her journey, but does she give up, let them get the best of her? No, she continues on, and makes sure to finish what she started. Phoenix is a devoted grandmother who would do anything for her beloved grandson, even if that means she has to face; humiliation, racism, ageism and her own physical “flaws”. She faces these problems, and even though they may be hard to face, but she handles the situations with ease, because she knows that getting the medicine for her sick grandson is the most important.

Overall, Phoenix Jackson’s character adds to the story through her humble, maternal strength. Phoenix’s love for her grandchild brought her through many challenges, but year after year as she completes her trek, she keeps her grandson as her top priority. This overwhelming level of determination allows her to keep hold of her most valuable possession. Through her actions she reveals to the reader that her humble, caring, determined nature allows her to overcome the odds and provide for her family as well as maintain a simple Southern elegance.

Phoenix also symbolizes a mythical bird; she has “the regenerative qualities of the bird are seen in Phoenix’s determination each time she suffers a setback,” Like the bird how it gets reborn again Phoenix keeps on getting up from the challenges and keeps on going just like getting reborn again. That is why the author named the main character Phoenix because she is like the mythical bird the phoenix in many ways even the description of Phoenix gives symbolism of her being like the bird. Phoenix wears a red rag to tie her hair and running underneath her skin “a golden color” [welty1274]. The image of the bird is shown in Phoenix’s face “the two knobs of her cheeks were illuminated by a yellow burning under the dark” [Welty 1274]. Her golden tone skin represents the fiery golden red feathers the bird has.

In the end we figure that Phoenix may be on a journey that really does not exist. We find out that maybe the grandson isn’t alive and that he has been dead for weeks. Whether or not Phoenix was aware she did not let life bring her down, whatever she was set to do she did and with great perseverance she has achieved her goal.

With the first name of Phoenix, Ms. Welty is showing the symbol of a Greek mythological bird that could live to be one hundred to one thousand years. The old phoenix dies in a pile of ashes, much like the ashes used to make lye, only to reemerge a new magnificent, colorful bird, to live another cycle of life (Wikipedia). Much like the bird, Phoenix Jackson has a red rag around her head, a wrinkled face with yellow illuminating skin, ringlets hanging from her hair, a striped dress, and a bleached sugar sack apron (Welty). In addition, similar, her age, like the bird, Phoenix is aged but wise, likely close to one hundred years, reemerges back to life once she received the medicine her grandson needed. Even the last name of Jackson is likely to be a symbol of a Doctor, who according to an essay by Melisa D. Stang, “Parting the Curtain on Lye Poisoning in “A Worn Path,”” was named Chevalier

While reading the story it appeared that Phoenix does not have a Grandson, or at least he was not alive anymore. She told the Doctor that her Grandson had a sore throat for a long time. When the doctors asked how

Phoenix, on the other hand, was a selfish manipulative old woman who had an obsession with power. She was on a journey through the woods to the city, where she had many encounters. When Phoenix encounters the hunter she steals the money that falls out of his pockets. She always seems to want something for her troubles. However, later in the story while in the hospital, Phoenix has a totally different personality. She seems to have no guilt for the actions she makes.

Phoenix Jackson and The Young Man embarked on their journeys for different reasons. Phoenix’s journey was a necessary journey; her grandson needed the medicine in order to be healthy. She took the journey because of her sense of responsibility and love for her grandson. Like any grandmother,

Phoenix Jackson was a tough woman for her age. Living only with her sick grandson, Phoenix had little company and

In addition to symbolism about her character, the conflicts present in the story allude a character of extreme determination and perseverance. Among these conflicts are those of man, Phoenix Jackson, against nature, man, and herself. In regards to man versus nature, Phoenix quite plainly faces a variety of troubles along her path to the clinic, including “a black dog with a lolling tongue [that] came at her” (Welty) causing her to collapse into a ditch “which is a symbolic burial in the dead weeds” (Daly). Secondly, man versus man entails her confrontations with the hunter and the nurse at the clinic. The hunter helps Jackson out of the ditch, back onto her feet, but then “he … lifted his gun and pointed it at Phoenix,” (Welty) yet she was unphased by the action. Albeit the hunter was disrespectful towards Jackson, the nurse she encounters upon reaching Natchez is charitable: offering “a few pennies out of [her] purse,” (Welty) but ultimately granting her a nickel. Finally, Phoenix faces an internal struggle with the questioning of her purpose

Phoenix Jackson, this old lady pass through plenty of difficulty to go to town just for her grandson’s medicine. She walked through thorns, creek, barbed-wire fence and field of dead corn and met a hunter who intimidated her by a gun. She wasn’t afraid of those difficulties and overcome them pluckily. The love for her grandson which gave her huge courage to do so.

Phoenix Jackson is a very old woman who lives out in the backcountry of Mississippi with her sick grandson. She takes care of him because she is his

She is willing to risk her own life to save her grandson. Phoenix makes an extremely long trek to town every time her grandson needs more “soothing medicine” (318; 91). She overcomes many boundaries along the way to town; it is apparent that she is wholly determined. Phoenix is “…very old and small and she walked, …moving a little from side to side in her steps, with a balanced heaviness and lightness of a pendulum in a grandfather clock” (314; 1). On her journey to town, she states, “I too old, I the oldest people I ever know” (316; 26). This proves that she is a very “old” woman who most likely would not be normally able and willing to make this trip to town by foot. The only reason that Phoenix Jackson is capable of doing this is because of the passion for her grandson inside

Phoenix is a selfless person. She puts her grandchild’s needs above her own comfort. Critic Hamm Speaks of this when she says: “Phoenix might be seen as the archetypal mother whose spirit remains undefeated