Blurred Reality In “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty, the main protagonist, Phoenix Jackson, experiences a series of obstacles along her journey to get a needed medication for her grandson, being held back by delusions, and the restrictions of nature. The author uses an abundance of symbolism to create an emblematic explanation for the occurrences experienced by Phoenix on her trek to town. While on her way to town, she experiences hallucinations and rough paths, causing her to be temporarily set back. Her past, which is hinted as the past of a slave, creates a safety harness of delusions causing a division between two realities: One that is average and realistic, and the other that is imaginary and almost childlike. In her average reality, Phoenix is an elder lady who can not bend down to tie her shoes and shoelaces ,”...which dragged from her unlaced shoes.” Phoenix hints in this story of her slavery when the hunter ,“lifted his gun and pointed it at Phoenix.” and she just stands …show more content…
In this reality, she has a grandson who is ill from ingesting lye and needs medicine to get better, which we later find out in the end of the story, is her whole purpose of going on this trip. On her way to get the grandsons medicine, Phoenix sits down to take a break and is met with ‘“...a little boy [who] brought her a plate with a slice of marble-cake on it…”. When she reaches to grab the cake from the boy, he disappears as well as the cake. The little boy who is suspected to be her grandson and the cake represent the optimistic times for slaves. When they were finally finished with their work in the fields, they’d go back to their cabins and be with each other. It was their time away. The next morning when the sun would rise, their freedom would disappear once again just like the piece of cake and the little