Devotion in A Worn Path
In "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty an elderly African American woman named Phoenix Jackson picks a cold December day to make yet another perilous journey to a city to get medicine for her ailing grandson. On the way this ninety-year-old woman faces many obstacles, both natural and man-made. Phoenix draws upon her perseverance and willingness to sacrifice herself to help her throughout her journey, but it is the undying love for her grandson that truly guides and drives her to her final goal. Phoenix Jackson has a seemingly inexhaustible amount of determination. From the moment that she sets out on her trek, she must fight all the challenges that nature has made for her. From the very beginning there is the threat of attack by wild animals and Phoenix shouts "out of my way, all you foxes, owls, beetles, jack rabbits, coons and wild animals!" undauntingly challenging them.
Phoenix is a very old woman whose aged, fragile body isn't suited to make such a long journey. At one point when she is climbing up a hill, she states that it seems like "there is chains about my feet, time I get this far." And yet she still trudges onward, stopping only once for a short break. On the way down the hill she gets caught in a bush, its thorns tearing at her finest dress. "I in a thorny bush," she exclaims. But she doesn't give up; she stands there untangling herself from the bush, "her fingers busy and intent." After she has overcome this obstacle she faces yet another trial. Across Phoenix's path lies a creek and across the creek lies a log, which substitutes as a bridge. It is hard enough for Phoenix to walk on flat and stable ground, so walking across the log is a dangerous challenge for her. Even though there is a large threat of her falling and badly hurting herself, "she mounted the log and shut her eyes" and crosses to the other side. Next she comes across a barbwire fence, and once again without showing any signs of fear she fords ahea!
d crossing that too. Phoenix travels a good portion of the day facing many physical challenges that test her stamina, but the real trials are the physiological ones that she faces as she encounters people along her journey.
Strength is the only reason Phoenix accomplished her journey and Phoenix's love for her only living relative is her greatest strength of all. Although the old Negro woman suffers from many handicaps, she starts her journey mentally prepared for the obstacles awaiting her. Phoenix uses her inner strengths and prevails over every barrier. She relies on her trustworthy feet to make up for her impaired vision. Her wit makes up for her frail body. Her determination makes up for her aged memory. But most of all, her love for her grandson her keeps her going. Clearly, the frail, forgetful, and loving old woman can overcome anything.
After struggling up a hill, extricating herself from a thorn bush, and crossing a log over a creek, Phoenix Jackson, the aged and infirm protagonist of Eudora Welty's short story "A Worn Path," sits down on the banks of the creek for a rest:
"Account for the changing political fortunes of the Nazi Party from November, 1923 until January, 1933."
The period after World War One was very politically unstable. Many different kinds of governments, such as fascism and communism, were coming up all over Europe. One country that especially faced this political fluctuation was Germany. After the war, Germany was forced into a democracy known as the Weimar Republic, but this government soon collapsed and Hitler’s fascism took over. There were various factors that contributed to the fall of the Weimar Republic, but three major ones were the lack of popular support for the government, the lack of efficiency and internal organization, and the competition of other, more conservative parties such as the Nazis.
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.
Relationships are the building block for personality and are significant in children’s ability to grow into substantial individuals who can thrive in an often harsh world. Constructing lasting and fulfilling relationships is an integral part to development as the interpersonal bonds forged are not only highly sought after but also set the ground work for all upcoming expressive interactions. Relationships and attachment go hand in hand as attachment is the strong and lasting linkage established between a child and his or her caregiver. Moreover, attachment significantly influences a large capacity of ones make up as it these first relationships that teaches morals, builds self-esteem, and develops a support system. The pioneers of Attachment Theory realized early on that human beings are not solely influenced by drives but that the earliest bonds formed by children with their caregivers greatly impact their ability to forge lasting relationships later in life. John Bowlby was first to introduce this theory to the masses in the 1950’s, and later Mary Ainsworth conducted further research to expand on Bowlby’s theory which proclaims that attachment is a “lasting psychological connectedness between human beings” (Bowlby, 1969, p. 194). The attachment bond theory by both Bowlby and Ainsworth focuses on the significance of the relationship between babies and their caretakers which research has suggested is accountable for influencing impending interactions, firming or injuring our capabilities to concentrate, being aware of our emotional states, self-soothing capabilities, and the capacity to be resilient in the face of hardship. Additionally, this research has provided a framework for assisting in describing these att...
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, which began on July 16th 1877, was the first national labor strike in the United States. The strike spread along the network of American railroad lines. Unorganized railroad workers, reacting to pay cuts and a loss of control to their company bosses demanded a work stoppage that was meant to halt all railroad traffic. Railway officials attempted to keep the trains running with militia and replacement workers but failed at the outset because of increasing popular support of the striking railroad workers. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 ended by August 1st with the strikers really no better off. The workers did not gain an immediate pay raise or improved working conditions. They had successfully overthrown the control of the railroad officials but they were unable to sustain the momentum they needed to make the strike effective. Even though the strike had been unsuccessful, the action itself was significant because it highlighted a growing division between capital and labor in American society. The Great Strike had important repercussions; a rise of national labor unions, an escalation in labor conflicts, a rethinking of the role of state and federal governments in labor conflicts and the establishment of labor rights as a continuing political issue.
The Winnipeg General Strike The year of 1919 has been one of the most influential years of strikes
It’s December when Phoenix starts on her journey to Natchez and it is a journey she has taken many times before. This journey is no journey an elderly and weaken person should have to make by themselves, yet Phoenix does. She does not allow her age or her condition to keep her from it. Deep through the pines, the path takes her, and her first task would be to make it over a hill that seems to take all her energy and strength. “Seems like there is chains around my feet, time I get this far…” (Welty 5), here the reader can tell Phoenix does not have the strength that she really needs to make it up the hill. Yet somewhere she finds the will to keep pushing on and moving forward. This same type of spirit that allows Phoenix to keep pushing forward in society, and not to back down. Showing the younger generation that you have to fight your way through to a brighter day. It is later down the path that Phoenix comes to a creek and the only way to get across, is by walking on a log. Phoenix walks across this log with her eyes close. Once across she opens her eyes and says, “I wasn’t as old as I ...
In "A Worn Path", a short story by Eudora Welty, the main character, an old colored woman named Phoenix, slowly but surely makes her way down a "worn path" through the woods. Throughout her journey, she runs into many obstacles such as a thorny bush and a hunter. She overcomes these obstacles and continues with her travels. She finally reaches her destination, the doctor’s office, where she gets medicine for her sick grandson back home. Many critics have speculated that this short story represents the love a grandmother shows for her grandson. Others say this story represents life and death, where Phoenix represents an immortal figure. Dennis J. Sykes disagrees with the other critics by saying, "A parallel exists between the journey described and the plight of the Southern blacks after the Civil War" (Sykes). Ultimately, Eudora Welty demonstrates how blacks have been persecuted in a white world.
Infant attachment is the first relationship a child experiences and is crucial to the child’s survival (BOOK). A mother’s response to her child will yield either a secure bond or insecurity with the infant. Parents who respond “more sensitively and responsively to the child’s distress” establish a secure bond faster than “parents of insecure children”. (Attachment and Emotion, page 475) The quality of the attachment has “profound implications for the child’s feelings of security and capacity to form trusting relationships” (Book). Simply stated, a positive early attachment will likely yield positive physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive development for the child. (BOOK)
2. What were weaknesses of the Weimar Republic? How did different political groups seek to remedy these weaknesses?
On May 9th 1934 a organized labor strike started in San Francisco that would snowball into a city crippling strike. The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) declared a strike for all longshoremen on the west coast, until they received better wages, a union-administered hiring hall, and union membership as a prerequisite for employed longshoremen. The Strike of 1934 lasted for three months, stopping maritime trade in the ports of the Western United States, from San Diego to Seattle. The clash was between the Industrial Association (IA), composed of big business and employers wanting to break the strike, and the ILA, along with other unions that dealt with maritime trades. The Strike of 1934 displayed the power the organized labor had, and how the mistreatment of labor can shut down an entire city and coast.
Dr. Sigmund Freud thought the experiences in the first five years were the most critical for the development of personality. It is where it all begins. We all go through stresses in life but it is the well-developed adult that is able to handle stress and how they handle it. It all starts with attachment between the caregiver and the infant. The emotional bond that forms between an infant and a primary caregiver is called attachment. Bonding is a continuation of the relationship that began during pregnancy. The physical and chemical changes that were happening in the body of a mother remind her of the presence of that little person who was growing inside her. Birth reinforces that bond and gives it validity. Now she can see, feel, and talk to the little person that she knew only as a movement in her belly and the heartbeat she heard through the ultra sound. Bonding allows her to transfer her love for the infant inside to the outside. Inside, she gave her blood and outside, she gives her milk, her attention with her eyes, hands and voice. Bonding brings mothers and newborns back together. Attachment is a very important development in the social and emotional life of the infant, usually forming within the first six months of the infant’s life and showing up in a number of ways during the second six months, such as wariness of strangers and fear of being separated from the caregiver. According to psychologist Mary Ainsworth, attachment is a connection between two people that creates a bond. It is that bond that causes the desire for contact with that person and the feeling of distress when separation occurs from that person. This special tie between two human beings that bind them together is what attachment is. Attachment aids a n...
“On 2 August 1934, President Hindenburg died. Within an hour of his death Hitler announced that the offices of chancellor and president were to be combined and that he was the new head of state. Hitler’s adolescent dream of becoming Fuhrer of the German people had been realized” President Hindenburg’s death marked the official end of the Weimar Republic, a democratic ‘experiment’ that had lasted since 1918. The causes of the dissolution of the Republic are wide ranging and numerous, as was explained in the articles of both Richard Bessel, and John McKenzie. The two author’s agree on the sequence of events which led to the dissolution of the Republic, however, they disagree on what exactly caused the transition from Weimar to the Third Reich. The author’s disagreement stem from a differing view of the fundamental cause, political structure versus political leadership.