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A Worn Path By Eudora Welty

750 Words3 Pages

Imagine, a grandmother with no one to help her and no way to get to town except by trekking through the woods just to get medicine for her sick grandson. A trek that takes this old lady up a hill, through thorny bushes, and over a stream with no way of getting across except for a log laid over it. A world where this exists is the United States of America in the early to mid-1900s. As the old lady sets off, immediately she encounters difficulty, a hill, the first threshold. Welty’s depicts Phoenix as a determined character on a long, difficult journey to the doctor’s office to elevate her journey to that of a hero’s.
Eudora Welty in “A Worn Path” uses specific details when Phoenix is overcoming challenges in her path to shoe she is determined to complete her journey and help her grandson. When Phoenix crosses the creek, Eudora Welty writes that a, “Log was laid across the creek”. Here Welty implies that Phoenix is expecting this to be a challenge, but despite her fear, she is determined to finish her journey. The purpose of this implication is to show how a hero must be determined to finish the task despite what fear and insecurities may enter the mind. When Phoenix must get through a barbed wire fence, Eudora Welty writes that Phoenix must, “Creep and crawl”. By this, …show more content…

The purpose of this quote is to prove that Phoenix is a hero by showing her as

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Pheonix Jackson’s grandson is dead because she shows signs of dementia, she hesitates when asked about how the boy is doing, and she says words that imply the boy isn’t changing. The story “ A Worn Path” follows the difficult trip routinely made by Pheonix on foot to a nearby town for her grandson’s medicine which he needs for his swollen throat. Pheonix shows signs of dementia which would affect her perception of reality and her grandson being alive or dead. In the line, “At first she took it as a man,” referring to her encountering a scarecrow, Pheonix shows that her senses are inadequate enough to believe a scarecrow is a man dancing in a field (762). Pheonix is more reliant on her body remembering the trail than her sense of sight

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This serves as an example of how a lack of familial ties can prevent an individual from overcoming intergenerational trauma. The relationship between Phoenix and her mother Elsie is portrayed as distant and estranged. This is exemplified in a scene where Phoenix is going to prison and Elsie attempts to reach out to her, but she rejects the gesture by moving away and refusing to touch her mother. Phoenix also expressed disdain for her mother's weakness, “she does not want to look at her, does not want to see Elsie groveling in her Elsie way, being weak. She does not want to feel sorry for her, or feel anything for her” (Vermette 323).

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Whether Phoenix makes the journey because of the trauma causing her to relive experience, or because she is in denial, or if she does it to honor him, it does not change the fact that Phoenix persevered in order to reach the goal of acquiring the medicine. Phoenix makes it to her destination despite having to walk through a dead and dangerous land in order to keep the memory of her grandson alive because she is a strong and courageous women with a deep love for her grandson that was not altered simply because he is gone from the physical

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In the short story Welty’s want the reader to be comfortable with Phoenix as a character. Welty describes Phoenix wearing a long dress reaching her shoe top and a long apron of bleached sugar sacks. When Phoenix talks aloud to herself the author wants the reader to imagine an old woman with characteristics of a warm, comical, young spirited woman side of her. The short story also uses images which evoke from the biblical imagery. Phoenix’s uses biblical connection to show the reader how important her story and the

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Because “A Worn Path” is set during Christmas, critics associate it with a religious pilgrimage. (American Writer) “She went on, parting her way from side to side.” (Welty) “This is similar to Moses parting the red sea.” (Isaacs)

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One major theme authors universally write their stories around concern the power of human relationships. Though writers may take different paths to communicate this, the strength that comes from these unique connections that exist between individuals resonates with everyone. Authors clearly articulate through a myriad of rhetorical devices that maintaining relationships is a fundamental part in personal growth and allows for a stronger sense of self. In finding companionship and comradery. people become capable of evolving and arriving at better understandings of who they are.

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Given her grandson’s injuries that hope is as fragile as the paper windmill. This reminds us that hope is fragile, and is contingent on historical and civil efforts beyond Phoenix and her grandson.     Phoenix Jackson perseveres to achieve a purposeful goal. Phoenix Jackson stayed true to her faith in times of desperation. Against the obstacles, she was willing to reach her destination to provide her grandson with the medicine he is in need of.

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Yes, the journey is a great risk especially in her condition but Eudora shows how Phoenix’s spirit causes her to persevere in the face of adversity. In the end, Phoenix Jackson reached her destination and received the medicine for her grandchild. What starts out as a long quest filled with dangerous obstacles ends in a meaningful lesson for the readers’. Eudora Welty short story, “A Worn Path,” exemplifies what it means to persevere through any tribulations that stand in the way of your goals.

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The excerpt begins by stating, “It was December—a bright frozen day in the early morning.” This shows that Phoenix’s journey is not an easy one; it’s cold outside and early in the morning. Phoenix continues on the path up a hill. While she is walking along the path, she thinks, “There is chains about my feet, time I get this far.” These chains immediately portray thoughts of slavery, which would cause one to think of endurance.

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“Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurtson exemplifies the amount of disrespect and domestic abuse a woman can handle. It also demonstrated how some males view women in a distasteful and unsatisfied way. Gender and sexuality can initiate most of the specific tactics of domestic violence that can dehumanize an individual, especially women. Zora Neale Hurtson’s character, Delia Jones, demonstrates how women can transition from being inferior to becoming superior in a domestic relationship. The story opened with Delia washing clothes for white people on Sunday, and Sykes verbally abused her for dishonoring God because she was washing clothes that belong to white people on the Sabbath day.

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(para 46) Phoenix says “I bound to go to town, mister,” (para 47). Phoenix’s entire journey signifies that love and willpower can get you anywhere in

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Resulting in deaths of black people of all ages. The stereotypes that portray black people as dangerous and savage has persisted decades after its creation and now more than ever even though its results aren’t the same and slavery has been abolished black people continue to suffer the consequences in various forms. From being afraid of black people because they seem suspicious, to believing that the victim of this whole situation are the dangerous ones when in reality they were part of such vile and very well planned atrocity to cover the real criminals of taking over the world. I am of course not saying that white people are all criminals and do not intend to say that whites are the ones that should be suffering all the misfortunes that black

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Some references even suggest Phoenix may have once been a slave; such as the chains the old woman feels on her feet as she climbs the path uphill. Racial inequality is unmistakably clear when the old woman falls in the ditch and is confronted by the white hunter. One would believe the hunter calling Phoenix Granny to be a harmless reference to her age; however, Granny is a term coined by southern whites in the thirties and forties and refers to a single elderly black woman: a granny is an old black woman who takes care of the white

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In the story “A Worn Path” Phoenix Jackson was an old African American women. She takes a small journey that can be an allegory of someone's whole life. The journey had hard and easy parts, beauty, danger, and confusion. But her quest was to get the medicine for her sick grandson who laid at home waiting for her return. Phoenix was a delusional yet heroic, caring grandmother who would stop at nothing to get what she needed.

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