Within every person lies a will and a flame of strength to achieve any goal, or conquer any obstacle in life. In Eudora Welty 's "A Worn Path", her main protagonist, Mrs. Phoenix Jackson, perfectly displays the strength that a human possess. Despite being of old age, poor and out of shape, Mrs. Jackson 's strength defies these odds on the worn path that she walks daily. Human strength is abundant in "A Worn Path", as the author shows the reader the reason why mankind is so strong. Welty demonstrates that love is what makes Mrs. Jackson, and everyone else, strong enough to move mountains. The strength of Mrs. Jackson exceeds more than normal, due to the condition of her beloved grandson, so much that not pain, death, or pride can kindle the fire of her strength. Although the worn path that Mrs. Jackson walks brings pain to her age ridden body, she still has the strength to suffer through this pain and conquer the path daily. The worn path challenges the protagonist 's physical and mental strength, for it is long and unforgiving. The author shows the reader how it inflicts pain and discomfort to Mrs. Jackson 's body nearly every turn of the path. Near the foot of the hill, as Mrs. Jackson mounts a log that is laying across the creek, she says "Now comes the trial"(Welty 289). Sadly, every obstacle that the path presents, a trial and a challenge to her fragile body appears. Nevertheless, despite the pain of the logs, thorns and the hard ground, Mrs. Jackson continue pressing
In the stories To Build a Fire and A Worn Path, Jack London and Eudora Welty tell the stories of two protagonists going on arduous journeys during the winter. Phoenix Jackson, the protagonist of A Worn Path, is an elderly lady hardened by the trials of life as a black woman living in the Southern United States, prior to the Civil Rights Era. She is surprisingly limber, resilient, and healthy for her age and has assumed the responsibility of caring for her sick seven- year- old grandson. She diligently provides him with the medicine necessary to treat him for the ingestion of lye. The young man, the protagonist in To Build a Fire, is a young northerner who is responsible for himself and his dog. He is besieged by the petulance of youth and ignores the advice of his elders, depending instead on youthful bravado to guide his decisions. Ultimately, on these two journeys of survival, both protagonists will depend on their life experiences to guide them through. The young man will be guided by his limited life experiences while Phoenix will depend on her wealth of knowledge to choose her path to survival.
In 1941 Eudora Welty put pen to paper and created a short story titled “The Worn Path”. At this point in history African Americans had been free from slavery, but they still lived their lives around incredible hardship and racism. Welty portrays a character by the name of Pheonix Jackson, beneath her old eyes and wrinkled skin is a woman that is irrepressible, humble, and confident. Pheonix begins her journey from her home in the woods to town, her final destination will be getting back home to her sick grandchild with the medicine he needs. Almost all odds are against Jackson, being a black woman is hard enough, but an old lady walking so far from home leaves her vulnerable to the elements of nature and the evil in another’s heart.
The sun pounding down, the cramp creeping up from deep inside the calf muscle, the extreme fatigue sinking in; yet just ahead, he can make out the banner flying in the barely-there-breeze. He may have made a wrong turn at mile 8, started getting cramps at mile 17, and twisted his ankle when he fell at mile 23, but he keeps limping forward. Phoenix Jackson, the elderly woman in Eudora Welty’s, “A Worn Path”, is a lot like the injured runner. It is her astounding bravery and her innate cunning, along with her eternal love for her grandson, which gives her the ability to endure the hardships of her journey to get her grandson’s medicine. Phoenix Jackson is able to overcome each obstacle and adversity she encounters along the path due to her unending perseverance.
While a narrative voice that is non-participating character, Eudora Welty is able to characterize the protagonist, Phoenix Jackson in “A Worn Path” to explain the importance of perseverance. Phoenix Jackson is an “old negro woman” (page 1; line 2) line who is traveling on a long trek through thick to receive a medicine for her ill grandson. Throughout her treacherous journey, she encounters a young white male who threatens her by “lifting his gun” (5;7) and pointing it at Phoenix. The narrator’s initial characterization and interaction of Phoenix, allows her to demonstrate perseverance later in the story. Within the first few paragraphs the narrator describes Phoenix as an “old negro woman” (1;3) who is also “very old and small” (1;3).
Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" is a story that emphasizes the natural symbolism of the
She had created a path, worn down, from several years of trips to the hospital. Everyone knew this old lady and many did not like her due to her frequent visits to the hospital, were very tiring and they say it as a nuisance. After her Grandson had drank something he shouldn’t have, she made it her duty to help save him before his throat swelled closed. There are three messages portrayed in Eudora Welty’s A Worn Path.
“A Worn Path” is a short story written by Eudora Welty. It is based on an elderly African-American grandmother named Phoenix Jackson, who goes for a walk to the town of Natchez on a cold December morning to get some medicine for her ailing grandson. This story speaks of the obstacles Phoenix endured along the way and how she overcame them. The theme, central idea or message that the author wishes to convey to his or her readers, in “A Worn Path” is one of determination. Phoenix Jackson is determined to get to Natchez, in order to get medicine for her grandson; she does not let any obstacles get in her way. The theme of determination is shown in many ways throughout this short story.
“A Worn Path” is a short story about an old black woman named Phoenix Jackson. She has to make this long journey to town in order to get medicine for her ill grandson; she is all he has got. On her journey to town she faces a lot of obstacles along her way. For instance, she has to travel through the forest in the winter time, she meets a white hunter that pointed a gun to her face, she has to crawl under a barbed wire fence, she had to walk across a log that lay across a creek, and she even got attacked by a dog. Phoenix also had trouble with the fact that she kept hallucinating and forgetting her memory in some parts of the story. She was able to overcome these obstacles and when she finally got to the doctor’s office, she was
In “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty, the use of third person limited point of view occurs on many occasions throughout the story. The author’s utilization of this common literary technique allows the reader to become more involved on a personal level with the main character, Phoenix Jackson. It also allows for a deeper understanding of her perspective of the world around her as seen and experienced by an old, uneducated, woman who wishes to do nothing more than to care for her ailing grandson, even though the time for his care and concern is long since passed. The author’s adherence to this presentational format allows the artistic freedom to express to the reader the inner thoughts of the main character. Her illusions and delusional episodes
By implementing a narrative voice that is a non-participating factor in “A Worn Path,” Eudora Welty dispassionately characterizes her protagonist, Phoenix Jackson, to suggest the incentive based power of true love. While pleading for medicine for an unwell grandson at the city hospital (her ultimate destination), a nurse calls the protagonist “an obstinate case.” The perverse denial to adapt her love-inspired, duty-bound course of action, advocated as it is at the story’s end, is a critical characterization. Nonetheless, it is the non-participating narrator’s initial characterization of phoenix jackson that allows this obstinate nature to emerge from the story.
Is it true that younger people in better health and conditions will always complete a task better than an older not so well fit person? In these two short stories “A Worn Path”, by Eudora Welty, and “To Build a Fire”, by Jack London, shows us how true that is. The protagonists in “A Worn Path” is named Phoenix Jackson who is an older black women living in Natchez, Mississippi in the 1930s. The protagonists is a man unnamed in “To Build a Fire” traveling in the Yukon. In both of these short stories both protagonists faces a journey that will bring them different obstacles, but only the strongest will survive!
At first glance, Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” leaves the reader with a sense of uncertainty and dissatisfaction. It is only after taking a historical approach to the story when the mood, setting, and theme becomes vivid and insightful. Welty describes Phoenix Jackson, the protagonist, as a humble Negro woman, immediately setting the tone by the matching the language of the segregation era of the mid-twentieth century. Then, the reader learns that the story takes place in the Old Natchez Trace, further solidifying the setting in what is usually referred to as the Deep South. So, it is no surprise that the imagery found in the story also corresponds to the time-period; e.g. the humble clothes made from sugar sacks, the fields of cotton and corn, and the lye swallowed by the grandson. These items would have been common in a time when most African Americans were found in the humble rural areas of the state due to the social inequalities at the time. With the setting in mind, it then becomes evident that Welty creates Jackson as the embodiment of the hopes and struggles African Americans experienced in a post-Civil War era.
Eudora Welty was born April 13, 1909, in Jackson, Mississippi she was an American author of both short stories and novels including one short story that will be discussed in this paper “A Worn Path”. “A Worn Path” was written in the south around the early 1940s 1941 during the time when African Americans were still being treated as if they were not as important as any other white person of the same age, gender in the south. A Worn Path” may seem like just a story about a loving old grandmother trying to take care of her grandson by taking a long journey to receive his medicine but the surface it is truly about not matter what was done in the past to reach equality we have reached not progress so the future and the past are the identical but
Welty is known as the American literary world Chekhov, Eudora Welty (1909-2001) was one of the most famous short story writers in the south of America. Welty was born in 1909, died in 2001, has gone through nearly a century, experienced two world wars, the Cold War, the American civil rights movement and so on. However, Welty did not show too much political topic in her work, did not criticize(kritəˌsīz) the war too much, she described daily life to reflect the real themes of life, expressed her view point of how we live. Welty won the European Henry novel award by (-- removed HTML --) . The novel is mainly through the description of a negro grandmother Phoenix, struggling to travel to the clinic in the city for her sick little grandson take the drug’s story, basically all descriptions about is a journey, no exciting plot, no dramatic scenes, no Fierce contradictions and conflicts, but it contains a profound meaning, highlighting the profound theme.We gonna through the main 6 elements, others good points, language style and ‘colour’ words four ways on the “worn path" analysis.
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.