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Essays on worn path
Racism In American Literature
Obstacles phoenix faced from nature on her journey in a worn path
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A Worn Path In Eudora Welty's short story "A Worn Path" the character Phoenix Jackson is an “elderly woman “who shows great courage to travel through the woods to get medicine for her grandson. Jackson’s grandson unintentionally swallowed lye some years ago which burned his throat, and he needs the medicine to heal him. During her journey, Jackson encounters several obstacles that she face that remind me of my grandmother who would do anything to help us. The character journey shows her strength to overcome many physical obstacle by presents of courage, strength, and love.
She is reminded of the violence that torn not only communities apart but families as well. How the social norms of the day restricted people’s lives and held them in the balance of life and death. Her grandfathers past life, her grandmother cultural silence about the internment and husband’s affair, the police brutality that cause the death of 4 young black teenagers. Even her own inner conflicts with her sexuality and Japanese heritage. She starts to see the world around her with a different
In Eudora Welty's short story "A Worn Path," an elderly black woman named Phoenix Jackson treks through the hilly backcountry to receive medication for her ill grandson at the clinic in town. Despite facing incapacitating conflicts, Jackson is unrelenting and perseveres the arduous journey for her grandson’s sake, as she has many times before. Jackson's fiercely devoted and determined character is exposed as she faces the struggles of debilitating poverty, advanced age, and the rugged physical environment. The severity of Phoenix Jackson's jarring poverty is blatantly evident. She has to walk to town instead of using a car.
For example, she wrote “…you might conclude that there is something queer about you, something ugly or foolish or shameful” (14). When American’s walk by people who have a cane or wheelchair, they probably don’t think “Oh, I want to be friends with them.” American’s probably think they’re a “cripple.” American’s don’t treat people who have a disability with respect. Instead, they judge a person who has a disability harshly.
She has been caught between two fires: racial dehumanization in the form of “slavery” and “lynching” on the one hand, and the call for “being good” and exerting effort for the betterment of oneself on the other. Self-development and betterment of oneself date back to Booker T. Washington who called for peaceful co-existence with white people instead of protesting against racism. He called colored people to work hard and realize achievements in order to prove to white people that they deserve equal treatment. Finney does not agree on some values and beliefs of the past as she criticizes Washington’s viewpoint by portraying a hard-done-by protagonist who has “heard / 7,844 Sunday sermons on how God made every / woman in his image (Finney, Head off & Split 9: 60-62). Parks has also “hemmed 8,230 skirts “for white women and hemmed out “18,809 pants legs” for white boys.
Throughout the story, it is made clear that Phoenix has poor eyesight and can be described as senile which we see in her personal description of mirages and misidentification of objects during her journey into town. Because of the third person narrative, the reader is given insight into the actual occurrences of the story as opposed to the story Phoenix herself might have told. When Phoenix stumbles upon a scarecrow she exclaims “Ghost… who be you the ghost of” (Welty 3). Because of the readers knowledge as to what the true nature of this “ghost” is, it is clear that Phoenix herself has difficulties discerning the reality from the illusion. If “A Worn Path” were to be told from a first person point of view, through the eyes and mind of Phoenix herself, the reader would be witnessing a story told by the epitome of an unreliable narrator.
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.
Her tragedy reflects not only the sexism in the African American families in early 20th century, but also the uselessness
According to the story “I in the thorn bush”, finally she stood free and after the moment dared to stoop for her cane”. That just shows how determined she is because most people would never walk as far as she did to get that medicine. Most people would just turn around once they encounter a hard situation. Just like the author intended “Worn Path” to be an allegory, and she's used the path that Phoenix takes to be a metaphor of “life is a journey, just like in life you see the path that is easy, and one that is hard”. Phoenix takes the harder path every day because if not her grandson might “die” which shows her determination by not taking the easy way out of things are choosing the “hard path to
In “A Worn Path,” Welty uses symbolism, setting, and characterization to reveal that the humans are capable of endurance when faced with obstacles such as death or small bushes. “A Worn Path” includes many examples of symbolism, and each of them help to further the theme of endurance. Although a time period is not given, the
In the story “A Worn Path” Phoenix Jackson was an old African American women. She takes a small journey that can be an allegory of someone's whole life. The journey had hard and easy parts, beauty, danger, and confusion. But her quest was to get the medicine for her sick grandson who laid at home waiting for her return. Phoenix was a delusional yet heroic, caring grandmother who would stop at nothing to get what she needed.
Most people, at some point in their life, hit a wall of negativity. Mary Oliver, in her poem, “The Journey,” emphasizes the trouble negativity has in the accomplishment of her goal, and later on how she pushes through it. Oliver’s purpose of writing this poem is to motivate those who may not have the overall strength to conquer all the hardship that is against them. She adopts an ardent tone in order to attract an audience who may be lost within life and to pull them into her writing. Oliver used emotion, voice, and ethos in order to strengthen her overall message of overcoming negativity.
Jackson is an old and poor grandmother whose senses are beginning to fail her, but she goes through seemingly unbearable trials in order to get to town and pick up her grandson’s medicine that will keep him alive. In this heartwarming story, Welty uses symbolism and various conflicts to create the theme of sacrificial love. In A Worn Path, Welty uses symbolism to illustrate her theme by giving the protagonist the name Phoenix. A phoenix is often used as a symbol of death and resurrection from the ashes ("Ancient Symbolism of
Even though everyone is different and have different ways of living, they still stick around and help even though they have to go through harsh treatment sometimes to be appreciated. These women in the story are basically raising the kids of the rich white families and they are still living in poverty, belittled, and called out of their names. Stockett exemplifies this throughout the story for the readers to understand how life was back then for the opposite
Black women are treated less than because of their ascribed traits, their gender and race, and are often dehumanized and belittled throughout the movie. They are treated like slaves and are seen as easily disposable. There are several moments throughout the film that show the racial, gender, and class inequalities. These moments also show exploitation and opportunity hoarding. The Help also explains historical context of the inequality that occurred during that time period.
