Walk To Natchez In A Worn Path

Beyond the Walk to Natchez A historical great piece of literary art, “A Worn Path” published in 1941, is a story of an old woman’s journey to town through the forest. The setting is rural Mississippi in the 1940’s, a time when racism was a way of life and a trip to town, especially for an old black woman, was often a long journey and thus a trip not often taken. The old woman’s name is Phoenix Jackson and she has quite an adventurous trip. One is made to believe this is just an average walk down a path through the woods for this old woman; however, the reader is entertained by Phoenix’s mannerisms and realizes there is deeper meaning of the story. This story, though short in length, host an

According to James Robert Saunders, The Encyclopedia Britannica describes a phoenix as a fabulous bird connected with the worship of the sun especially in ancient Egypt and in classical antiquity---.The phoenix is said to be as large as an eagle, with brilliant scarlet and gold plumage and a melodious cry---. It is very long-lived; no ancient authority gives it a life span of less than 500 years; some say it lives for 1,461 years (an Egyptian Sothic Period): an extreme estimate is 97,200. As its end approaches the phoenix fashions a nest of aromatic boughs and spices, sets it on fire, and is consumed in the flames. From this pyre miraculously springs a new phoenix. (Saunders) The similarities between the mythical bird, Phoenix and the old woman, Phoenix Jackson are profound and worthy of pointing out. The Phoenix lives a long time and Phoenix Jackson is old: the bird has scarlet and gold feathers while the old woman wears red on her head and has yellow skin tones. Bird references are also a huge part who of Phoenix Jackson is, especially n is the description the old woman gives of her grandson when she says “He wear a little patch quilt and peep out holding his mouth open like a little bird” (Welty 221,227). Phoenix Jackson’s journey to Natchez and back for her grandchild’s medicine shows a protective and nurturing quality, like a bird taking care of its young in the wild.

When the old woman asks a lady on the street for help with her shoelace and when she enters the clinic, she is called Grandma. As Eudora Welty states in an interview in 1998, her stories “reflect the racial relationships’---. ‘Certainly I think any writer is aware of the complicated relationship between the races” (qtd inWelty and Brans). The racist names do not rouse Phoenix, which is a sign of the era. A black woman in the nineteen forties, alone in the white part of town, expects to be called Granny, Grandma or old Aunt. It is not surprising Phoenix is unfazed by names she is called. One is even humored by Phoenix’s mannerisms in handling the white people she encounters on her journey. These white people only assume they have an advantage over this old black woman. James Roberts Saunders states in his short story criticism, “there have been solitary women, black and oppressed though they might have been, who were rightfully declared as mothers to a world”. Phoenix Jackson possesses these motherly qualities and is only concerned with completing her original task of obtaining medicine from town for her