Symbolism In Eudora Welty's A Worn Path

In “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty, she introduces readers to an African American woman by the name of Phoenix Jackson. Jackson is the epitome of an upstanding human being; she makes a tedious and enduring journey in the dead of winter to get medicine for her ill grandson. As Jackson travels along, the author carefully places symbolism throughout the story. The path itself represents a human beings journey through life and the trials Phoenix faces along the way represent the obstacles in life. The medicine Phoenix receives is symbolic of personal goals in life, and the windmill she buys for her grandson is symbolic of the reward people receive after they overcome obstacles in life. All three symbols carry parallelism to Christian beliefs. The

message the author conveys is a message of selflessness for the greater good of others; a message that believers in faith and God practice.
In “A Worn Path”, Phoenix faces many trials while she travels to get her grandson’s medicine.

The first obstacle she faces is when her dress catches onto a thorny bush, the thorny bush symbolizes negativity, or negative people that try to hold others back from an achievement. Another challenge Phoenix faces happens when she crosses over a creek. This obstacle symbolizes the fear that comes when you’re unsure of your abilities. The creek also creates parallelism to part of the Christian scripture of “walking by faith and not by sight.” (2 Corinth. 5:7). Another symbolically important obstacle comes when a black dog makes her fall into a ditch; the dog symbolizes tribulations that arise that may get people off course in life. Lastly, the dog can symbolically represent the devil, and how he uses his trickery to make humans fall short in the walk with God. Phoenix faces many more trials throughout the story, but the lesson in the symbolism of the path is that no matter what obstacles mankind faces, mankind must

overcome.
After her long journey, Phoenix arrives to the clinic. As she waits for the nurse, she overhears an attendant say that she was “A charity case.” (238). Phoenix views the medicine as an accomplishment of her journey, but the office workers only frown upon Phoenix for not being able to afford the medicine instead of recognizing her diligence. The medicine symbolizes the goals each of mankind personally set. Many times others don’t know why we set certain goals as people, or even laugh because they think that they are unattainable; but what is important is that we persevere. If Phoenix let the comments of “charity” affect how she felt about her goals, she would never be able to make the journey for her grandson’s medicine repeatedly. The symbolism in the medicine is to never let people’s opinions discourage us from being able to reach our “goal” in life.
As Phoenix’s journey draws to a close, only good comes from it.

From Phoenix’s encounter with the man in the forest, and the “charitable” donation from the lady at the office, it allows her to buy her grandson a toy windmill. She explains, “This is what come to me to do.” (240). The windmill symbolizes rewards in life. Phoenix could have easily rewarded herself with the ten cents she acquires on her trip, but she chooses to get her grandson a present. As humans journey through the course of life and start to reach our goals, we often receive rewards from our efforts. The religious symbolism/comparison is the reward Christians receive at the end of life. Some rewards are for personal enjoyment, but the author shows through Phoenix that the best reward comes from doing things for others. The lesson from the symbolism of the windmill is that throughout our journey in life, we should never lose focus of what’s important, which is

selflessness.
The overall symbolism or idea the author conveys through Phoenix is the idea of self service and humility. Everyone in life has to walk personal path, and everyone’s path is not the same, but everyone has the opportunity to be selfless. Every human has a purpose in life, and it is up to each person to figure out what that purpose is. It is very easy to get off track in our lives and forget that we are here for a greater reason, but Welty does a great job at using Phoenix as a reminder. Using a path to represent human life, medicine to represent the goals we set for ourselves, and the windmill to represent reward; people are able to understand that although they can consume themselves with personal lives and goals, that they often forget to perform self-service, and think about others. Phoenix Jackson embodies the values of a selfless human being, one whom mankind should all strive to be like.