Symbolism of the Title a Worn Path

The short story, “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty describes a very interesting character whose name is Phoenix Jackson. She isn’t your average person. Phoenix is a very old and boring women but the story is still interesting. The title is very symbolic of the story and has a very good meaning. Throughout the story you begin to learn more and more about Phoenix and you also discover some important things. Phoenix Jackson is a very old and small woman. She wore a dark striped dress reaching down to her show tops. She also wore a long apron with a full pocket in the front. Her shoe laces were always untied.

Her eyes were blue and she wore a red rag over her head that hid black and grey hair. By looking at Phoenix you would assume that she moves at a very slow pace. That’s correct, when she walks; her chances of tripping are great because of her untied shoe laces. Just by the features of this old woman, the title already symbolizes Phoenix because she’s a worn old woman. Her appearance isn’t the only thing that’s worn, her life path is also. Phoenix has lived and gone through a lot during her lifetime. She’s been through the civil war, has lost a grandson, and has gone through times of slavery.

She’s experienced enough things in her life, so she isn’t really afraid of anything and does not care for much. These events in her life have caused her to being to lose her mind and go crazy. Example of this is in the beginning of the story when she first leaves her house. She says, “Out of my way, all you foxes, owls, beetles, jack rabbits, coons and wild animals! Keep out from under these feet. ”(page. 213) This shows that she’s losing her mind because she is talking to the animals. Later into the story she encounters a man with a gun.

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The man said to her if the gun scared her. She replied, “No sir, I seen plenty go off closer by, in my day, and for less then what I done. ”(page. 217) This, shows that she isn’t afraid of nothing and that she’s been through tons of scary experiences that an African American had to go through during her time. She is referring to the civil war and her times of slavery. The story never actually says that Phoenix has a grandson, but she claims that she does. This could also mean that she is going crazy. The “Worn Path” symbolizes Phoenix’s life and how worn and difficult it was.

Like Mentioned before, these experiences in Phoenix’s life also represents all African Americans. During the times she lived African Americans lives were very difficult. Problems they had were, slavery and even after it ended they were still having tough times adjusting to it. The rights of African Americans were not equal to white people and this also made things difficult for them. This makes you think if all African Americans from this era were like Phoenix. They’ve dealt with slavery and once slavery ended most were poor and were in poverty just like Phoenix Jackson.

She seemed to be losing her mind because of her age and experiences so this could have been an issue for a lot of blacks during this time. The story ends with Phoenix walking out of the doctor’s office waving her hand, giving a nod, and walking slowly down the steps and onto the road. This is ironic because you’re left with the image of her being very slow and her continuing to walk, on her “Worn Path”. The title has a positive and negative impact on the story. The positive side of it is the experience Phoenix has had during her “path” of life.

It has made her strong and very wise. She has lived through a lot of different life changing events that has changed the way she does things. The negative side to it is that the path of live she’s had may have made her strong but the events that have taken place has made her weak in many different ways. Going through slavery and the civil war can have traumatizing effects on the person. Phoenix in time seems to be suffering from dementia and she doesn’t really care for much anymore. Her memory has gone down the drain. The story explains how she walks very slowly.

This shows that going through slavery has taken a huge toll on her body. This is why the word “worn” is in the title and this is why it has more of a negative impact on the story. Welty’s title of the story really symbolizes and sums up the story. After reading the story the titles definitely makes more sense because you know and have an idea of what Phoenix had gone through. The Path means life and the worn part means the struggles of life. That’s exactly how Phoenix Jackson’s life was and for many African Americans during this time. Tons of hardships and struggles.

The Motivation of Love in “a Worn Path” by Eudora Welty

Love is a very powerful and compelling feeling. It may lead people to act in ways that they never have before and to move people to overcome and accomplish tasks that would otherwise seem impossible. Sophocles once stated, “One word frees us all of the weight and pain of life: That word is love. ” This statement is the underlying factor that motivates the main character in Eudora Welty’s short story, “A Worn Path. ” The story portrays an elderly woman’s journey to the city during a frozen day in December to obtain medicine for her grandson’s chronically sore throat.

Welty uses strong symbolism throughout the story to depict just how influential love can be. From the beginning, Welty reiterates the fact that Phoenix, the elderly grandmother, is very old and poor. Phoenix is very small and fragile, walks very slowly and uses a thin cane while striving not to fall with every step she takes, has an apron made of sugar sacks, and many wrinkles embedded on her face. Welty also hints to the reader that the grandmother has very weak eyesight, possibly cataracts disease.

Phoenix even mistakes a scarecrow for a man dancing in the field and laughs while saying, “‘My senses is gone. I too old. I the oldest people I ever know…’” (802). After presented with these facts, one may be skeptical of Phoenix completing even half of the journey since elderly people are usually associated with words like slow, weak, and inactive. Phoenix, however, contradicts the accepted image of a typical grandmother. Instead, Phoenix’s characteristics consist of being active, strong, and full of desire. The only motivating factor that ignites these characteristics in her is the love for her grandson.

She has the mindset that she will endure any obstacle in order to obtain medicine just so her grandson can live with the least pain possible. As she finally begins her journey, Phoenix experiences many obstacles that force her to show her inner strength. Every stage of Phoenix’s journey is difficult. Welty shows strong symbolism through each obstacle presented before the grandmother. The name “Phoenix” also describes a bird that is fabled to live up to 500 years old only to burn itself and rise again from its ashes in freshness of youth. This symbol may represent a new hope or an emblem of being restored after great uffering, just like the grandmother is renewed with new hope and motivation after completing each obstacle. Right away as the path turns into a hill, Phoenix is setback. She says, “‘Seem like there is chains about my feet, time I get this far. Something always takes a hold of me on this hill – pleads I should stay’” (800). Just as she exerts enough strength to conquer the hill, her dress gets caught in a thorn bush and she again is setback. This situation exemplifies how poor she is because she tries so hard to break free without tearing her dress.

The next challenge is climbing through a barbed-wire fence. For such an old and frail woman, one would think it would be hard to crouch down and crawl on her hands and knees. Ironically, however, Phoenix is only concerned with not tearing her dress on the fence. Once again, this shows the incredible heart and desire she has to complete her journey. Another use of masterful symbolism is when Phoenix encounters a buzzard. She looks up and says, “‘Who you watching? ’” (801) as if she is telling the buzzard that she is not even close to death or defeat and will not fall victim to it anytime soon.

With the courage to move on and with the huge hill behind her, Phoenix treads on only to stumble upon a swamp filled with alligators. Quietly, she passes unharmed until a black dog surprises her. The tiny old woman hits it with her extremely thin cane but only goes tumbling into a ditch. Once again, any elderly human might give up or not even be able to get out of the ditch. However, Phoenix’s heart is set out to make it to town and back without even thinking twice. She even says to herself, “‘Old woman, that black dog come up out of the weeds to stall you off, and now there he sitting on his fine tail, smiling at you’” (802).

A racist white man then helps her out of the ditch but continues to insult her with racial comments and even points his gun at her. Phoenix shows her inner strength by staying calm and repaying him by carefully snatching the nickel that he had dropped. Despite all of these oppressing obstructions, Phoenix makes it into town. It is truly amazing to see how much adversity a person will endure in the name of love. Once Phoenix reaches the hospital, her age greatly shows in her restlessness and forgetfulness of why she even traveled that far.

The trip’s purpose is forgotten because the actions have been repeated so often that Phoenix is able to make the journey “‘…just as regular as clockwork’” (804), proving that this is a trip repeated frequently through the dedication of love. The nurses know exactly why she came and give her the medicine saying that “‘…it’s an obstinate case’” (805). Because the grandson’s condition shows no signs of improvement, the nurses give Phoenix the medicine out of sympathy because she traveled so far. To Phoenix, however, it is the only way to show love to her grandson.

She never chooses to give up because the process of obtaining the medicine is just as important as the result. Especially because the grandson’s condition is not getting better, a “renewed sense of hope” arrives when Phoenix obtains more medicine. She wants nothing more than to help her grandson’s sore throat subside. It is almost as if Phoenix feels that making this journey is all that she can do for her loved one. Her love, however, does not stop after obtaining the medicine. After one nurse gave Phoenix a nickel in the spirit of Christmas, she takes the two nickels that she now has to buy her grandson a paper windmill.

Phoenix’s actions can be classified as heroic because her sheer determination and love for her grandson is all that motivates her throughout her expedition. A journey filled with such danger could only be endured with love as motivation. The compelling force of love is what continues to hold Phoenix together and helps her to overcome many obstacles despite her old age. As an old senile woman that perseveres through difficult travel and near insanity, Phoenix’s character embodies the theme that love is a very influential force in many people’s lives.

The Theme of “A Worn Path”

The Theme of “A Worn Path” Charlotte Schroeder Ashford University 03/04/2013 ENG 125 Instructor Abby Forster In the short story “A Worn Path”, the author Eudora Welty, created a strong theme of undying love with an old woman and her grandson. The main character in this story is called Phoenix; she is an old woman that is narrated from the author trying to make a long journey down a worn path to bring her sick grandson medicine. She will not let anything get in her way from completing her mission and will not give up even though she is not a young puppy anymore.

She is the last living relative to her young grandson and she keeps strong to fulfill his needs and keep him happy. The author uses great symbolism in the short story throughout the entire story. Religion, racism, and true love all play a key role in the theme of “A Worn Path”; it has strong literary elements that take this story to higher limits. The story does not tell us where the mother is, however shows us how strong Phoenix is in her journey with characters making us know how bad racism is and how God is strong with her in her mission.

Anyone that has children would not stop at anything to save them; Phoenix’s journey down a worn path proves it. This story is about a grandmother, Phoenix, walking through treacherous woods to get some medicine for her grandson that is sick that may or may not help him. The story is told in the third-person, “Third-person point of view which occurs when the speaker is not a participant in the story. It has two forms: omniscient point of view and objective point of view. ” (Cited in Clugston, 2010) The author uses a narrative approach with the main character; it shows her thoughts and feelings throughout the entire story.

She speaks to herself with a single purpose, devotion to her grandson in the doctor’s clinic. She must get to him at no cost since she is poor. The story’s theme is about undying love for a grandmother and grandson; it explains her struggles against aging since she has walked this path since the civil war. The narrative story expresses a lot of symbolic characters, first it starts with the name Phoenix which stands for the mythical creature that rises from its own ashes. “The use of symbolic characters throughout the story is explained.

The author provides a critical interpretation and offers different meaning behind several elements. ” (Cited in Clugston, 2010) Phoenix is faced with getting old and losing her mind, she is very afraid of it, but still carries on with the strength of God with her. Religion plays a key role to keeping her mind and strength strong and even beat racism with the characters she met along the way and interacts with. It starts with a cold month in December for the setting that makes you feel compassion for the main character and brings a thought of stagnation and sleeep.

The story’s author sets a picture in your head first, “The setting is rural, a cold, early morning in December in the South. ” (Cited in Clugston, 2010) The main character is a Negro woman that is an old lady and has been through many life situations. The story uses settings to establish many points for the theme and details of wagon tracks used to tell us she is following a familiar path. “On she went. The woods were deep and still. The sun made the pine needles almost too bright to look at, up where the wind rocked. The cones dropped as light as feathers.

Down in the hollow was morning dove- it was not too late for him. ” )Cited in Clugston, 2010, “A Worn Path”, para. 3) This is the “easy part” of her new journey since she will face a hunter and a nurse along the way. She meets a white hunter with a dog; they represent external conflicts that she must deal with. The hunter helps her out of a ditch that she has fallen in, however irony is used since he puts a gun in her face that also resembles racism. She compares her bones to weeds springy enough not to have been broken by the fall into the ditch.

The hunter speaks down to her since he thinks she is a crazy old black woman trying to go see Santa Clause for presents. She finds a nickel in her pocket, “God watching me the whole time. I come to stealing,” she knows that she must keep going with god’s help. However, she does not let this get her down since religion played a big role in her life and she has encountered much worse. Next, the author tells how Phoenix is feeling, “Seem like there is chains about my feet, time I get this far”, this symbolizes chains are like a struggle for her. Cited in Clugston, 2010, “A Worn Path” para. 10) She is faced with buzzards that symbolize death for her and oak trees that symbolize strength and wisdom since she was strong with life still. “She passed through the old cotton and went into a field of dead corn”, this showed how devoted her love was to pass through death defying places. (Cited in Clugston, 2010) Also, when she drank water, “In a ravine she went where a spring was silently flowing through a hollow log. Old Phoenix bent back and drank”, it symbolized a source of life and regeneration. Cited in Clugston, 2010, “A Worn Path” para. 14) All of these literary elements contributed to the short story and theme. When Phoenix arrives in the city she sees Christmas lights that are red, green, and silver that look like presents, which made religion come to play again. She encounters a nurse when she arrives finally to the doctor’s clinic. The nurse thinks that she is very poor and gives her another nickel to help her. All Phoenix wants is to see her grandson happy so she takes the two nickels and buys him a pinwheel to make him smile.

Besides the medicine she has for him, she wanted to make him know he was loved and wanted to give a present. In the end the author made me feel the undying love that a grandmother can have for her grandson. She took a hard path in spite of her old age to make her grandson get what he needed, medicine, and a smile. Her journey faced racism, religion, and death that she overcame with the love she had in her soul, it would not die even if she got hurt. The medicine did not work in the past for her sick grandson, however she thought it might help to cure him with love.

Everyone that has experienced a mother’s love or grandmother’s would know that they will not stop for anything to give their undying love. References A Worn Path, Edora Welty-Introduction. Critism. ED. Anna J. Sheets. Vol. 27 April, 2012 Retrieved from: http://www. enotes. com/worn-path-critcism/worn-path Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. Retrieved from: https://content. ashford. edu Lappin, A. Studia Neophilologic June, 2012, Vol. 84 Issue 1, p33Retrieved from: http://www. ashford. edu/ehost/books

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