Obstacles In Eudora Welty's A Worn Path

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.

Life is more than just a walk in the park, we are not always that lucky. Throughout one persons life there are always ups and downs, but what really make a person are the actions we take when we encounter obstacles. Life is an obstacle course in which we have to overcome in our lifetimes. In A Worn Path an older woman by the name of Phoenix Jackson takes a long road full of hardships to achieve a goal, which is to get medicine for her grandson. Not only does Phoenix of A Worn Path represent struggle but how we overcome this struggle to achieve a sense of achievement or a goal. Throughout time, people have been going through life’s obstacles and their willingness to

Phoenix shows determination by getting by all of these obstacles and getting to town. Her determination to get to town shows that she would not let anything get in the way of something she knows she must do.

In “A Worn Path,” Eudora Welty uses setting, characterization, and tone to illustrate the progresses of Phoenix, in a physical and emotional sense. The author illustrates the progress of Phoenix’s social, physical, and emotional sense to describe changing times and social norms. This allows the reader to get a clear and vivid out reach of what they are going to read about phoenix journey.

The title of the story, “A Worn Path,” is foreshadowing something coming to an end. In Phoenix Jackson's case, it could mean the last time she walks the path or it could even very well be her life. Eudora Welty describes Phoenix walking slowly in the dark pine shadows with a cane, indicating the rough journey ahead. Early on in the story, she encounters a thorn patch. In this story, it states,“Thorns, you doing your appointed work. Never want to let old folks pass, no sir. Old eyes thought you was a pretty little green bush.” The thorns represent some of the hurdles that hinder you if you are born black in America, especially in Jackson's time. The author uses imagery in the story to make the reader feel as if they know her. “God watching me the whole time. I come to stealing.” When Jackson talks to herself aloud the reader imagines the young spirited side of her.

“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.

In this short story “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty, I will be analyzing symbolism. In the story “A Worn Path” the author uses symbolism to create a figurative explanation of the occurrences in her journey. This story has distinct symbols from myths, historical, and biblical events. The character Phoenix Jackson has various trials to go through on her way to town to get more medicine for her ill grandson.

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.

As phoenix walks into town, she asks a random woman on the street to tie her shoe. “Thank you missy. I doesn’t mind asking a nice lady to tie my shoe when I gets on the street”, (A Worn Path, 1280) this could be a continuation of the representation of the child-old woman analogy that I described earlier in the essay. As she finds her way into town, she finds her way to the doctor’s office, she then makes a conversation with the nurse and tells her, “We is the only two left in the world. He suffers and it don’t seem to put him back at all. He got a sweet look. He going to last. He wear a little patch quilt and peep out holding his mouth open like a little bird. I remember so plain now. I not going to forget him again, no, the whole enduring time. I could tell him from all the others to creation” (A Worn Path, 1280). I saw this as a representation of how she felt alone in the world, and how she is going to

The short story “A Worn Path” written by Eudora Welty, reveals the life of a poor, old Negro woman living in Natchez, Mississippi during the 1930’s. The protagonist, Phoenix Jackson, lives alone with the exception of her ill grandson out in the country. Throughout the story Phoenix Jackson travels the same difficult journey to town. In “A Worn Path” the author, Eudora Welty, utilizes setting and symbolism to illustrate the character’s perseverance and endurance throughout her life.

There are many people who travel a distance in life to find the path they should take or to remember the path they once took. In the poem “The Path Not Taken,” by Robert Frost and the short story "I Used to Live Here Once" by Jean Rhys there are many similarities and differences. The authors’ use of describing a path helps them personify life’s journeys and self-reflection.

Phoenix also encounters numerous physical obstacles between her and her goal. Shortly after setting out, she becomes entangled in an obstinate bush. She fights what appears to be a losing battle. As Welty describes it, “Her fingers were busy and intent, but her skirts were full and long, so that before she could pull them free in one place they were caught in another” (315; 8). Phoenix seems to maintain a good attitude as she begins to talk to the bush: “Thorns, you doing your appointed work. Never want to let folks pass, no sir. Old eyes thought you was a pretty little green bush” (315; 8). As she does with all of her other challenges, she

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,

Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" is a story that emphasizes the natural symbolism of the

  The short story "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty, is a descriptive story of a grandmother's difficult journey, for a grandson she loves. Her devotion to her grandson and wanting to provide him with a better lifestyle, was her motivation to overcome these trials. On this trip, Phoenix Jackson, the grandmother, struggles against old age, nature, and reality.