Biblical Allusions In Eudora Welty's A Worn Path

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

for her grand child with lye poisoning. Along the way she encounters several obstacles. Welty throughout the story the author makes several points to connect this work to other famous works of literature to strengthen her character without directly doing so. The author uses imagery to recreate famous parts of The Bible also the main character's name, Phoenix Jackson is a reference to the mystical bird the phoenix which is a symbol for rebirth. Phoenix Jackson symbolically is reborn several times throughout the story. The stories title and main plot point is the path she walks which holds many similarities to the path of life.

The mythological story "A Worn Path” is of tales and figures, the most considerable, being the legend of the phoenix. There are numerous symbols and allusions brought about in the story relating to the legend of the phoenix. The phoenix is a bird that comes from Egyptian mythology. The best analogy of the phoenix is a magnificent bird. The phoenix has astonishing powers. It has the knack to materialize and vanish in the blink of an eye. The myth states the phoenix travels to the sun. The sun gives the phoenix it powers. The heat incinerates the bird. The bird is reborn from the ashes. From her name along with appearance to her action and the symbolism throughout the story, Phoenix Jackson is the manifestation of the phoenix (bird).

The story revolves around the main character, Phoenix Jackson. Jackson, an older woman with “numberless of branching wrinkles” that form a “whole little tree in the middle of her forehead,” encounters many setbacks, including poor eyesight, fatigue, multiple falls, thorn bushes, and barbed wire. In Saralyn R. Daly’s, “‘A Worn Path’ Retrod”, it is stated that “Phoenix encounters not mere difficulty on her path, but evil,” (Paragraph 1). Although the obstacles seem as though they will get the best of her, she perseveres through each like the ancient mythical bird, the phoenix. Ancient Greek mythology says the long-lived phoenix bird cyclically regenerated from its predecessor’s ashes after being engulfed in flames to burn to ash. After every fall, akin to a phoenix dying, she rose again, stronger, persevering as a phoenix does through its death.

Last but not least, Phoenix overcame obstacles involving the people she encountered. The first person that she meets is a hunter. In the beginning he seems like a benevolent character because “he lifted her

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.

Phoenix Jackson in Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" has been compared to the mythological phoenix because of her birdlike qualities, and it's also been noticed that Phoenix possesses many of the same characteristics as Christ. But, what hasn't been addressed is the fact that Eudora Welty didn't just leave the symbolism to Christ alone. Welty also included many biblical allusions as well. Phoenix Jackson is not only symbolic of the mythological bird that rose from the ashes of its own demise or simply a Christ figure comparable to the Son of God, but she is also a biblical hero facing temptation and trials along her journey and succeeds unharmed and steadfast in her faith.

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

Thesis: “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty is one of the best short stories to incorporate different

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.

Eudora Welty is known for her distinguished pieces of literature; not only for the story but also for the way she structures and conveys her message. Welty’s method’s of language throughout her work is deceptively smooth in her approach to engage the reader but quickly can change into a lush environment littered with symbolic meaning. Within this autobiography a thorough analysis will be conducted to help understand and conceptualize what Welty’s language choices are trying to convey and how the intensity personifies her experiences.

In addition, another point big message of A Worn Path is connected to the man powerful bird, but when it gets older and know it is about to die the phoenix goes and build a nest and lights itself on fire and out of the flames and new baby phoenix is born. The baby phoenix will grow up to be strong and powerful and then repeat the cycle. Shown in A Worn Path where it says, “Over she went in the ditch… Down there her senses drifted away” (Pg. 852). She falls into a ravine and is stuck there for so long, to the point where she was going to die. Phoenix gets lucky and someone comes along and helps her and instead of giving up, she continues her journey not letting it faze her. Showing like the phoenix bird she pushes through and never gives up and will fight through the pain. Undoubtedly, Phoenix’s name has a hidden message and meaning to it.

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

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

Phoenix dies the ashes are the rebirth of a new bird and that is what the