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Obstacles in a worn path
Obstacles in a worn path
Introduction to a worn path
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Obstacles in a worn path
Obstacles in a worn path
Introduction to a worn path
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
“A Worn Path” describes the journey of an elderly black women named Phoenix Jackson who walks from her home to the city to get medicine for her sick grandson. As she walks, she struggles against mental fatigue and poor eyesight. She mistakes a scarecrow for a ghost until she realizes it is not a ghost. She also meets a white male who seems nice, but is rude with his commits about trying to make her go back home. When he drop a nickel, she quickly realizes it was money.
One could assume that symbolism is the backbone to all literature. Without symbolism the piece of literature is inadequate, lacking representations of objects, people, and situations. However Eudora Welty’s work “A Worn Path” proves the prominence of symbolism in any prose. The short story about a woman’s ability to face nature, mankind, and one’s own self. The protagonist is an woman named Phoenix Jackson who has an unforgettable nature.
In her autobiography, One Writer’s Beginnings, Eudora Welty illustrates how early memories of reading and books later inspired her to become a fiction writer. She uses intense diction, hyperbole, quotes, examples, and compare and contrast to support her purpose. She speaks in a reminiscent tone to a general audience. Welty narrates her love for literature and acknowledges the individuals that impacted her, ultimately conveying the intensity and value of these experiences.
Phoenix’s courage underlined by her encounters with the young hunter and the clinic employees. On the trace, a dog knocks her off her path, leaving her unable to rise until she is rescued by a young hunter. Though he helps her, she is also somewhat scare of him. The hunter belittles her and boasts of himself because he walks as far as she does when he hunts little birds. She divert the hunter attention by getting him to chase off the strange dog, so she can retrieve his nickel to buy her
On this December day she is walking down a long and enduring Natchez Trace to perform a heroic quest. On the path it goes into great detail about all the things she sees such as water, animals, cabins, plants, and dangerous places. This gives us the sense that she is familiar with taking this journey linking us to Phoenix and the history behind the path. The appearance that Phoenix Johnson has is very important to the story.
However Phoenix kept going on her journey that shows how she symbolizes herself. Phoenix is not going to let some scarecrow and barbed-wire stop her from getting to town and helping her son and this symbolizes how brave Phoenix Jackson
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
She exemplifies Christ along her journey when she stops under a mistletoe tree; the same type of tree in which the cross was made. The thorns she encounters also relate to Christ’s death on the cross, the crown of thorns he wears on his head. The journey she takes to get her grandson’s medicine, is considered to be an example of self-sacrifice. Phoenix gives others the opportunity to help her and accomplish good things. One example is when the hunter helps her out of the ditch.
The Phoenix is a mythological creature that lives for five centuries
Phoenix insisted, “No sir, I going to town” (Welty 466). Phoenix continually displays the will to get her grandson’s medicine and not letting anything or anyone stand in the way of achieving that goal. The hunter even pointed his gun at Phoenix but she showed no fear. She put her life at jeopardy, yet again, for the sake of her grandson. The hunter said, “Doesn’t the gun scare you” (Welty 467), Phoenix replies, “No sir, I seen plenty go off closer by, in my day, and for far less than what I’ve done” (467).
While walking up the path, Phoenix has had to overcome obstacles while it seems like death is in the form of chains around her feet. Even so, she continues onward to freedom. The scene continues while Phoenix passes trees and birds and animals, and suddenly she is crawling through a barbed-wire fence. The change in scenery indicates how Phoenix might be somewhat confused, especially because she is old. It also indicates how Phoenix’s journey was not one of peacefulness, rather, it was one of survival.
She stood straight and faced him. ”(para 55) This scene shows how Phoenix is forceful when the hunter hold the gun right at her face and she does not move. She is a strong woman and her character proves that with
The old woman is unfazed, which leads the reader to believe she is quite used to this behavior from young white men; in fact, Phoenix actually has the upper hand and the hunter does not even realize it. Elaine Orr points this out in her essay, stating “While he appears the authority, she employs his definitions and rewrites them as riddles, thus deconstructing his privilege”. In another essay the writer states “she is confronted by a white hunter who levels his shotgun at her in an obvious allusion to Jim Crow racial violence” (Moberly). The fact that Phoenix calls the hunters bluff with a gun pointed at her proves this is not her first run-in with an arrogant young white man. The old woman is used to this form of racism and is not daunted by it as she has mind set to complete her walk to
The Incident Command System (ICS) is a standardized management system widely used for responding to both natural and man-made disasters. It provides a flexible and scalable framework for command, control, and coordination of emergency response efforts. The ICS is designed to facilitate effective communication, enhance situational awareness, and ensure a coordinated response among multiple agencies and organizations involved in disaster management. When it comes to man-made disasters, such as terrorist attacks or industrial accidents, the ICS provides a structured approach to coordinate response efforts among various agencies, including law enforcement, fire departments, emergency medical services, and hazardous materials teams (USDA, n.d., p.3). It enables these entities to work together seamlessly, share information, and allocate resources effectively to mitigate the incident's impact.
Phoenix quest is to get to town to get her grandson the medicine he needs. Her grandson is very ill and can not get his own medicine. That 's why everyday she take the longer journey to go into town. She knows the journey is going to be long and hard, but she is willing to push through the struggle to help her grandson.