"A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty is a short tale that has a theme of discrimination, specifically racial discrimination. Discrimination is described as the unfair or unjust treatment of an individual or group based on traits such as ethnicity, gender, age, or faith. Welty depicts the prejudice encountered by the story's heroine, an old African American lady called Phoenix Jackson, as she travels through the rural south in "A Worn Path."
The tale is set in the 1930s, during a period of tremendous racial conflict and discrimination in the southern United States. Phoenix's trip to Natchez to get medication for her grandson is fraught with difficulties, many of which are based on discrimination. Along the journey, she comes across several people who
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Gilman's story demonstrates how social standards and expectations can lead to discrimination and marginalization, especially in terms of gender. The story's protagonist is a lady who has recently given birth and is suffering from what is now known as postpartum depression. However, when the tale is set in the late nineteenth century, women's mental health was not well known, and the narrator's condition is dismissed by her husband and brother, both physicians. They demand that she merely relax and not strain herself, and they prohibit her from participating in any exciting activities, including writing, her …show more content…
Desirée is a victim of both ethnic and gender discrimination because the males in her life regard her as inferior. Armand, her spouse, is initially kind and loving to her, but his attitude shifts drastically when he learns that their child is of African American ancestry. He accuses Desirée of causing the "taint" in their child's DNA and exiles her from his house. This response exemplifies the double standard that existed in American society at the time, in which women were held to different standards than males and was penalized more harshly for