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Thesis For A Worn Path

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Recommended: Character Analysis of Phoenix Jackson in “A Worn Path”

Prompt #3: “A story that takes place in a wild and natural setting might include characters struggling against nature to survive.”

Working Thesis: Phoenix Jackson, an elderly African-American woman on a journey through rural areas faces human and non-human obstacles whilst traveling to a town and ultimately why she made the long travel for her sick grandson’s medicine shows true compassionate love.

Welty, E. (1941). A Worn Path. A Curtain of Green and Other Stories by Eudora Welty. Reprinted by Russell & Volkening for the author. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
A Worn Path begins in a descriptive analysis of old woman Phoenix Jackson. The surrounding setting, nature sounds and details of Phoenix are described in great detail to portray the struggles an elderly …show more content…

The story tells of Phoenix whom is travelling from her home “behind the ridge” in the direction of a town. During her travels, she encounters several obstacles in her path to include a log that must cross, a thorny bush that catches her dress, crawling under barbed wire, hallucinations of a boy holding a piece of cake, a buzzard that’s watches her, a white male hunter and a dog. Of her perils on this path, she finds herself fortunate to find fresh water and accidently dropped nickel by the white hunter. As she enters the town riddled with Christmas decorations, she encounters friendly people and towns woman willing to help tie a shoe lace for Phoenix since she was unable to do so herself in her elderly age. She ultimately reaches her destination only to reveal that she is at a medical office of sorts and is there to pick up medicine for her sick grandson. After a somewhat strenuous conversation with

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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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Phoenix Jackson And The Narrator Analysis

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The story of Phoenix Jackson and the Narrator are based on the point of view of both the writers. “A Worn Path” is a story of a small, old, African American woman with wrinkles, who wore an apron bleached sugar sacks, hold a cane made from umbrella and shoe laces that are dragging, walking down the winter landscapes and describing everything she notices. While, “The Lone Ranger” is a story of a typical Native American youth, who is recounting his view of his society and struggles with identity, alcohol, and family relationships. The two characters have a few things in common and are opposite from each other. Even though staying in a marginalized environment, she is determined to do miles of walking to the urban area where she have to face

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Finally, Phoenix has trouble recalling the last time she met her mother “Phoenix tries to remember the last time she saw her mother. A year, no, fourteen months ago” (Vermette 314). These examples demonstrate the lack of a strong familial bond between Phoenix and Elsie, highlighting the impact of intergenerational trauma on the characters' relationships. It also becomes

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Everyday Use By Eudora Welty Compare And Contrast

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Also like Everyday Use, A Worn Path takes place at a time in the 1900s when racism existed. Just like Mama, Phoenix also takes care and protects a child. However, the child she takes care of is her grandson. Many years ago, her grandson swallowed lye. This is a strong substance which is used in making soap.

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Three Artistic Tools Used In Eudora Welty's A Worn Path

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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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Obstacles In The Worn Path

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Granny Phoenix started her journey early in the morning in December. In the first paragraph it starts off showing Granny’s age

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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.

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Literary Analysis on “A Worn Path”       The short story “A Worn Path,” written by Eudora Welty, depicts the journey of an elderly black woman named Phoenix Jackson who walks from her home to the city of Natchez in need of medicine for her sick grandson. Phoenix experiences many obstacles that do not interrupt her trip, but rather make her a stronger woman for overcoming them. In A Worn Path, Welty illustrates her journey through several key symbols: the name Phoenix, the path, and the windmill. Phoenix shares a name with a creature which reflects her indefatigable nature, her constant striving towards her goal, as well as her unflagging optimism and high spirits (Goodman).

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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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We see love in Phoenix Jackson by how she takes the long journey to get medicine for her grandson. In the story Eudora Welty enhances the unbeatable love Phoenix Jackson has for her grandson through drawbacks she faces, her health along with age, and taking the journey. Throughout the course of her journey she forgets her purpose, in her heart firm love she has for her grandson always lead her back on her path. Phoenix Jackson faces many obstacles on her journey but, none of them distract her from reaching the medical building for her grandsons sake. The hunter insisted “ Now you go on home, Granny!”

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In the story, Phoenix gets caught on a thorny bush that she didn’t see in passing. She encounters a log, and has to lift her skirt high and legs to get over it. She is

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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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