A character is just a character until given a chance to evolve. By evolving in a story the character becomes dynamic almost visually alive. That is what Old Phoenix undergoes in the short story “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty. The audience follows Phoenix, an elderly Negro woman, on her strenuous journey from the far countryside to town. On this trip the audience watches Old Phoenix grow into a character that they begin to form a connection with allowing her to jump out at of the pages. This is accomplished through Welty’s use of physical description, action, and dialogue to bring Phoenix Jackson to life.
First, Welty uses physical description to give the audience a way to actually picture Old Phoenix, as though she was real. In the story the author spends time in describing Phoenix’s facial features “Her eyes were blue with age. Her skin had a pattern all its own of numberless branching wrinkles and as though a whole little tree stood in the middle of her forehead, but a golden color ran underneath, and the two knobs of her cheeks were illumined by a yellow burning under the dark”(Welty 866). Welty paints a vivid image in the reader’s mind, allowing the reader to truly picture them as if the character was standing in front of them. Physical description also helps the reader grasp a little of Phoenix's background this can be seen from how the author describes Phoenix's attire.“She wore a dark striped dress reaching down to her shoe tops, and an equally long apron of bleached sugar sacks, with a full pocket: all neat and tidy,” (Welty 866). This description gives the notion that Phoenix comes from a poor background since she uses a bleached sugar sack as an apron. Although this description shows Phoenix's poverty it ...
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...reader and character to bloom.
Welty’s use of physical description, action, and dialogue enables Old Phoenix to become animated in the mind of the reader. By using physical description Old Phoenix becomes a dimensional figure that manifests out of the pages into ingraining herself into the reader’s mind. Pairing her physical description with Phoenix’s actions causes the reader to become emotionally invested in the character, creating a certain bond that makes Phoenix more than just a character in a story. Furthermore, with dialogue the reader is given a better understanding of Phoenix’s life, be it her present or past, making Phoenix more than just words on a page. Due to the use of these techniques Welty is able to build a relationship between the reader and the main character using understanding and emotions.
Works Cited
"A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty
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“A Worn Path” tells of an elderly and frail black woman and of the hardships that she must overcome. Upon reading the story, you realize that there is more to the story than meets the eye. She faces many roadblocks along her way. Phoenix faces many dangerous obstacles along her way, for a person of her age. She faces racism from some of characters she meets along the way. Phoenix faces inferior treatment, as though she is nothing more than some insect to squash. This story is about not only her ‘journey’ to Natchez, but also about her journey through society and the struggle to overcome the dangers, being treated inferior, and the racism.
Welty uses many nature symbols to help illustrate her hope and perseverance, and strength in the face of destitution. These symbols occur at several different sentences in the story, and helps show Phoenix’s struggles against nature to get what she needs (medicine for her grandson). One of the major obstacles she faces is the hill. Every time Phoenix climbs the hill, she says, “Seem like there is chains about my feet, time I get this far” (Welty 503). This sentence symbolizes the hard life that Phoenix lived through the period of slavery and racism, and also the trave...
A transformation took place during the story and it is evident through the narrator?s character. In the beginning he was lacking in compassion, he was narrow minded, he was detached, he was jealous, and he was bitter. Carver used carefully chosen words to illustrate the narrator?s character and the change. Throughout the story his character undergoes a transformation into a more emotionally aware human being.
Welty uses her main character, Phoenix, to portray colored people who represent the fight for freedom. When Phoenix is described in the beginning, she is wearing a “red rag” and a “dark striped” dress (Welty 212). The red rag represents...
Although I feel as though there are many literary elements throughout this short story such as characterization and theme, I also feel as though symbolism is very important as well. First of all, I believe that the name Phoenix in itself is symbolic for the type of person the old woman truly is. A Phoenix is a mythological creature who dies in fire and rises from ashes only to be stronger. It is as though all of these hardships only make the old woman more determined to complete her journey successfully.
What makes reader to see an feel that ? The literary elements used by author to describe and coll or this main character through his journey to find the answer to all of the question arisen in a upcoming situations.
Authors use character development to show how a person can change. Through a descriptive portrayal of a charter and their development they become real to the reader. A well-developed character stirs up emotions in the reader making for a powerful story. A person can change for better or worse and Nathaniel Hawthorne shows this thru the character development of Hester, Chillingworth, and Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter.
In the story A Worn Path, Eudora Welty shows an old woman living in a time period where racial prejudice is rampant and out of control. Phoenix Jackson is a grandmother whose only motivation for living is to nurture her grandson back to health. The strength of love may make people do or say unusual and implausible things. The central idea of this story is that love can empower someone to over come many life-threatening obstacles. The idea is shown when an old woman conquers all odds against her to show her everlasting love for her grandson. Throughout the story Phoenix Jackson has to overcome many types of obstacles that hinder her in her devotion to help her grandson.
In “A Worn Path” colors are used to emphasize the depth and breadth of the story, and to reinforce the parallel images of the mythical phoenix and the protagonist Phoenix Jackson. Eudora Welty’s story is rich with references to colors that are both illustrative and perceptive, drawing us in to investigate an additional historical facet of the story.