Eudora Welty: The Queen Of Southern Sass

My first impression of Eudora is that she is a well-off person with a good background and a very good education. Through this she has had the abilities to gain good literary knowledge she had attended university but returned

Background Info: By writing in vignettes, she illustrates her emotions and the feelings she expresses towards the people that surround her.

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.

Dazey, Mary Ann. “Phoenix Jackson and The Nice Lady: A Note On Eudora Welty's "A

Butterworth, Nancy K. "The Critics." Eudora Welty: A Study of the Short Fiction. Ed. Gordon Weaver, et al. New York: Twayne, 1997: 225-234.

“A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty portrays an elderly, southern, African American woman’s endurance through a lengthy journey from her home to Natchez, Mississippi to obtain medicine for her ill grandson. Throughout the journey, the protagonist, Phoenix Jackson, confronts several conflicts. The tale describes the encounters of Phoenix Jackson during her travels using literary devices such as symbolism, conflict, and allusion to detail Jackson’s experiences as she overcomes the physical, psychological, and social obstacles she faces that ultimately emphasize her character.

The story “A Worn Path,” by Eudora Welty tells the story of a woman named Phoenix Jackson, who lives in Natchez Mississippi. Phoenix has a grandson that she cares for that has swallowed a chemical called lye, that was in many households back when Welty wrote this story. Lye poisoning was common in rural areas. Welty is writing about this problem the hardship Phoenix Jackson went through to receive medical treatment at that time. Without the name Phoenix Jackson and the characteristics, she possesses there is no way she could overcome the obstacles that stood in her way.

Eudora Welty wrote during the modernism period. This literary movement is characterized by being known as a period of international movement during the European, American, and World art, literature, and culture. Some characteristics that are apart of the modernism period are narrations through fragmented, internalized, or multiple perspectives or viewpoints. During modern times classical and mythic reforms were remade. Modernism also increased industrialization and globalization around the world, during this time most modern fiction was cast by first person and the literature usually had a clear beginning, middle and end. Modernist stories were also known to point out Irony’s, satires, and comparisons between things.

Phoenix Jackson’s body, that is described, and her ethnicity are worth studying. At this time in history, the nineteen thirties, being a woman and African American were both downsides to what would have been desired: Caucasian and male. Phoenix Jackson's skin tone is also described very differently as well, with patches of multi skin tone with blue rage eyes (288). At first it is another noteworthy description, but when view deeper it could represent multiple things. Like many rebirthing that of a phoenix (mythical bird, that rebirth in a fireball, and reborns from their ashes) goes through, signifying her treacherous journey and obstacles overcome. It also can be used to show the diversity of not just her, but of America, where everyone old, sick, poor, no matter of race suffering all together. Phoenix Jackson wrinkles on her face, described as a tree roots, where tree sported in the middle of her face. Then even goes as far as telling us that gold underlining around her wrinkles and forehead, a color commonly associated with phoenix colors (usually represented as gold and red). Which explains her red rag that she wears around her head. Like that of a phoenix, she herself is draped like one. From Phoenix’s scalp to her golden wrinkles.

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 lived in a society where racism was still running strong. Yet she faced and dealt with that every day of her life. As an African-American slave, she would have toil in the fields, wondering if she would still be alive by the time the sun was setting. Phoenix is visible shaken with a run a scarecrow she believed to be a ghost. She says to image, "'Ghost,' she said sharply, 'who be you the ghost of? For I have heard of nary death close by” (Welty 24).Slave mothers would often show that same fear as they watched the shadows return from the field; wondering if their loved ones were still alive or was going to come home unharmed. Phoenix faced those same fears as a mother and grandmother. If Phoenix was caught in the

Through the character of Phoenix Jackson in “A Worn Path” Welty produces a picture of an aging African-American woman in the Jim Crow South. In “A Worn Path” we learn of the hardships Jackson faces on her weekly journey for medicine to sooth the pain of her grandson. Welty conveys this these hardships by giving the reader insight into the physical health, the mental health, and the socio-economic status of Jackson.

Although Phoenix Jackson is old, tired, dirty, and poor, nothing can stand in her way. In Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path,” Phoenix jumps off the page as a vibrant protagonist full of surprises as she embarks on a long, arduous journey to

surroundings. The main character in the story, Phoenix Jackson, is an old black woman who

        Phoenix Jackson was certainly a dedicated old lady. She refused to give up, despite the odds against her, to help her grandson. Her grandson was very sick, and needed certain medication to live. After traveling miles through wilderness, barbed wire, thorn bushes, and being confronted by a white man with a gun, she still persisted on her