A Worn Path

A Tattered Trail

“A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty, is the tale of the unstoppable love and care of a grandmother for her grandchild. The main character in the story, Phoenix Jackson, is an old black woman who makes a long journey into town to get medicine for her ill grandson. Despite the many obstacles Phoenix encounters along her journey, determination helps her to continue. I will analyze “ A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty in terms of symbolism and characters.

First, I will analyze “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty in terms of symbolism. One way symbolism was shown in the story was by the obstacles Phoenix encounters along her journey. The first obstacle Phoenix faces is when she gets herself tangled in a bush, and she does not want to tear her dress. Phoenix begins to take to the bush saying, “Thorns, you doing your appointed work. Never want to let folks pass, no sir” (Welty 389). Eventually, she frees herself from the bush. “ Old eyes thought you was a pretty little green bush” (Welty 389). This shows that you should not judge from the outside and that things are not always, what they seem to be. Another obstacle she faces is when she meets the barbed wire fence. She begins to speak to herself, “ she could not pay for having her arm or leg sawed off if she got caught fast where she was”(Welty 390). Again, determination helps her to continue. Phoenix’s name also shows symbolism. “As

Wesley 2 most critics have noted, Phoenix Jackson’s first name links her to the Egyptian myth of the bird that renews itself periodically from its own ashes”(Bartel 45). In addition, like her name, Phoenix seems ageless. When she stops to drink water from the spring she says, “Nobody know who made this well, for it was here when I was born”(Welty 391). When she encounters the hunter and he asks her how old she is she says, “There is no telling, mister, “said, “no telling” (Welty 392). Again her age is emphasized when she goes to the doctor’s office and the nurse ask her why she never went to school. “I never did go to school, I was too old at the Surrender” (Welty 394).

Secondly, I will analyze “A Worn Path”, by Eudora Welty in terms of characters. The main character in the story is Phoenix Jackson.