Symbolism In A Worn Path By Eudora Welty

In Eudora Welty’s short story “A Worn Path”, Phoenix Jackson makes a long journey into town to get medicine for her grandson who has swallowed lye. Eudora Welty used symbolism, setting, and character development to foreshadow that the grandson is dead. Welty’s story leads her readers into a liberating tale representing the love a grandmother has for her grandchild. In the story, Phoenix Jackson refuses to believe her grandson is dead, and in doing so, she annually puts herself in harm’s way to retrieve her “dead” grandson’s medicine. Moreover, Miss Jackson preaches that her grandson is indeed alive, and she will not let anyone tell her otherwise. Along the path towards town, Miss Jackson encounters many obstacles for an elderly woman, including

a scarecrow falsely recognized as a ghost, a rabid dog, a sketchy hunter, and many more obstacles that all test her strength and abilities to their utmost use. She, however, being the loving and caring grandma that she is, abstains from letting others affect her and all of her actions.

She even courageously fights through the excruciating pain to go get her grandson the medicine he needs to “live”. On her journey, Phoenix Jackson, being old and elderly, also happens to forget her surroundings and purposes, temporarily forgetting about her grandson. This is why Welty leads her readers to believe that the grandson is indeed dead, though not officially proven. It is because of this spur of forgetfulness that it is believed Jackson forgets, or chooses to ignore, the probability that her grandson is dead because of her and the lye poisoning her suffered from under the care of Phoenix. It is because of her possible amnesia that she travels dangerously into town to retrieve a medicine that is wasted each and every year. In fact, Welty was “inspired to write Phoenix’s story after observing an old woman walking along the horizon in the Mississippi countryside [with a sense of purpose]” (Shmoop Editorial Team) as

well.
Eudora Alice Welty was born on April 13th, 1909 in Jackson, Mississippi. According to notablebiographies.com, she is even “considered one of the most [influential] authors of the twentieth century”. She was the eldest of three and lived her life having a close bond with her entire family. She even claims that one of her fondest and oldest memories of her family was the voices of her parents reading to her every day. After attending undergraduate school in Jackson, she followed her education to Mississippi State College for Women for two years and then transferred to the University of Wisconsin for a bachelor of arts degree. However, her father, who was greatly discouraging to her works, advised her to study advertising at Columbia University Graduate School of Business, which she did attend for a while. After her father’s passing in 1931, Welty moved back home and got a job for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of which she then used as experience when writing her stories. She was a writer, a photographer, and a journalist, and she took advantage of each and every job she ever finished. Furthermore, she wrote many pieces of literature ranging from actual novels to small short stories all contributing to her success. She has even won many awards for all of her works. Unfortunately, the world took away Miss Eudora Welty when she died on July 23rd, 2001, taking one great writer with many great works with it. Welty, however, will never be forgotten and neither will her success.
Eudora Welty’s short story “A Worn Path” was written in a time of war.

It was the year World War Ⅱ started within the United States and the year the United states became involved in chaos. Welty’s short story, according to www.nps.org, is about the representation of Welty’s home town in Mississippi, specifically about the Natchez Trace, or the “Old Trace”, as known by Welty. This trail is represented in “A Worn Path” by the trail Phoenix Jackson travels along to get to town to get her grandson medicine for lye poisoning. Lye poisoning, however, was also “a common ailment in those days in that part of the country… Children would mistakenly drink lye dissolved in water (a cleaning agent)”. Welty wrote a story portraying the hardships of a person living during the 1900s and all they had to deal with. Living during that time was hard, and Welty recognized that without hesitation. Moreover, Welty wanted to display her recognition of the challenges these people faced, but she did not get the idea of “A Worn Path” until after witnessing a lone woman traveling along the Natchez Trace. She dreamed big for the woman, creating a story that would display all thoughts consumed within Welty as the years went along. Eudora Welty also wrote her story during a time of racism and inequality, which is also believed to be displayed within her works. However, Welty brought this issue about throughout her work and finally brought light to it through “A Worn Path”. In addition, the Natchez Trace

was more than a trail Welty grew up around, it was a trail that impacted her in more ways than one and although many may not know the true impact the Natchez trail had on Welty, it was indeed a huge part of all of her stories. She grew up on the trial and the trail was a great contributor to all of the ideas passed through the mind of Eudora Welty. Thanks to Miss Welty, Mississippi’s very own natural landmarks will always be displayed in Welty’s works all around, and her audience will always be forever grateful.
Eudora Welty’s short story “A Worn Path” presents many various elements within the story. Welty uses symbolism, setting, and character development all to portray the hidden purpose of the story. Firstly, Welty applies symbolism within her work to symbolize many different secret meanings. One simple symbol she used was naming her character after a phoenix: Phoenix Jackson. Throughout the story, and much like a phoenix, Phoenix Jackson continually troops to town again and again without catastrophe. She “rises from the ashes” to reach an end goal only she can reach and strives to do so for a purpose greater than herself. Furthermore, Welty uses the trail Phoenix travels along to symbolize the life Phoenix lived. The trail was accompanied by many obstacles, and Jackson’s life was accompanied by many obstacles as well. On the trail, she was visited by a scarecrow, a sketchy hunter, and a dog, and on Phoenix Jackson’s path of life, she was also visited by many obstacles too. She had to deal with racism, the guilt of her grandson swallowing lye on her watch, and possibly even living with amnesia. This all took an extreme toll on her mind and body, yet she pushed through both strenuous journeys to grasp onto her goals: “Seems like there is chains about my feet, time I get his far… Something always takes a hold of me on this hill—pleads I should stay” (Welty as adapted in Grammar is a Destination). Welty also used the literary element of setting to display the emphasis of struggle that Phoenix Jackson went through. “A Worn Path” was a story written in the American South, possibly even during the depression era that can be determined through all of the context clues given. Welty’s readers can also make this accusation because of the reaction Welty gives Phoenix when she steals the nickel from the hunter. Phoenix clearly has more value for the nickel than society has today, and that is how Welty’s setting portrays an era of the 1900s. Much to her readers liking, Welty also uses character development as a key technique throughout her story. The character development of Welty’s protagonist Phoenix Jackson is one much like a phoenix, as stated earlier through one of the symbols. Phoenix continually encounters danger, but never gives up, for she is driven by her grandson and his condition. Welty wrote her as one driven by passion, and driven by passion was she. Phoenix never failed to overcome the obstacles given to her, and she accomplished all she came for throughout the story. Phoenix Jackson truly displayed a phoenix for how they are.
Clearly, Eudora Welty’s short story “A Worn Path” will go down in history as one of the greatest and most thought-out stories of the 20th century. Phoenix Jackson represents the hardships of any loving and caring grandmother who just wants to give their grandchildren a life they rightfully deserve. In Miss Jackson’s case, unfortunately, she could never give that life to her grandson because of how the world was. She got that chance ripped away from her, but she never gave up trying and never gave up that prosperity she obtained with it. She continually risked her life to “save” one less fortunate and lived in constant guilt of not being able to do anything about it. Welty portrayed a wonderful character within Phoenix, and composed a magnificent piece of literature within a time of despair. Eudora Welty, along with Phoenix Jackson, will never be forgotten, and “A Worn Path”, along with all of Welty’s other stories, will forever be a grand part of every piece of literature throughout the world.