A Worn Path Eudora Welty

Short story by Eudora Welty

A Worn Path
by Eudora Welty
1991 publication
Country	The states
Linguistic communication	English
Published in	Atlantic Monthly, vol. 167, no. ii^[1]
Publication type	Magazine
Media type	Curt story
Publication date	Feb 1941

"A Worn Path" past Eudora Welty is a short story about an elderly African American adult female who undertakes a familiar journey on a road in a rural expanse to larn medicine for her grandson. She expresses herself, both to her surroundings and in brusk spurts of spoken monologue, alert away animals and expressing the pain she feels in her weary bones.

Plot [edit]

"A Worn Path" is told in the third person point of view.^[ii] "A Worn Path" follows an elderly African American adult female named Phoenix Jackson as she ventures toward a boondocks.^[3] The story is set up in Natchez, Mississippi during the Great Depression era.^[4] Every bit Phoenix journeys along the Natchez Trace, she periodically encounters many obstacles, including thorny bushes, barbed wire, and a big dog, amidst others. She meets a hunter, pocketing a nickel that he drops, and a lady who ties her shoes. The story concludes with Phoenix arriving at the town having completed the journey yet again. Her motivation for having done and then is also revealed as she laments how her grandson swallowed lye damaging his throat from the reaction. She tells the nurse supplying the medicine that the harm to his throat never fully heals, and every then frequently his throat will begin to swell shut. It is Old Phoenix'south love for her grandson that causes her to face the trial of the journey to town, every time information technology is necessary, with no questions asked.

Grapheme [edit]

The graphic symbol of Phoenix Jackson is an elderly African American adult female who uses a sparse small-scale pikestaff made from an umbrella to tap the ground, akin to a white cane.^{[ commendation needed ]} Elaine Orr identifies Phoenix every bit a fabulist who has "a penchant for re-creation (making up stories) rather than resolution."^[5] ^: 58 She has also been identified as "a completely and beautifully harmonious person" and Nancy Yard. Butterworth has noted that the character is neither a stereotype or stock graphic symbol.^[5] ^: 59

Themes [edit]

A commonly cited theme of the story is unselfish love, which Orr has stated is the ""charitable" view of Phoenix that the white customs in the text finds acceptable".^[5] ^: 59

The curt story too discusses racism and the arrogance it breeds past marginalizing other people and being cruel to them. However, another theme of the story is the ability of the human spirit to endure disharmonize and poor circumstances within nature and society out of devotion to loved ones.^[6]

Symbolism [edit]

The symbolism in the piece and the potential lessons to exist learned from it are open to estimation. Many critics have commented on the significance of the principal character'southward name in relation to the mythology phoenix, relating to her indomitable ability to rise again and make her journey.^[7] ^[eight] Other writers such as Dennis Sykes and Kevin Moberly have argued that Phoenix's endurance through multiple obstacles emphasizes racial and economic inequalities in the Deep Due south during the Low.^[9] ^[x] Kathleen Feeley has drawn comparisons to the story of Odysseus, who faces many trials along his journey.^[eleven] Welty herself addressed a oft asked question - "Is Phoenix Jackson'southward Grandson Really Expressionless?" - resolving that the office of the author is not to know all certainties of the text, only the creative truth.^[12]

Mistletoe is seen as a symbolic item by David Piwinski, who states that the institute is affiliated with "Jesus Christ" implying how Phoenix herself Is a "Christ-like figure" who repeatedly overcomes adversity.^[thirteen] Similarly, Piwinski notes how mistletoe is specifically an "evergreen" which may "allude to the idea that (Phoenix) is an immortal effigy".^[13] Orr states that the cycle culminates for Phoenix herself in the course of the lye/damage/obstacles representing the death that the bicycle begins with while the journey and destination relate to the subsequent rebirth and that the money has meaning behind information technology with the nickel that she stole from the ground that the hunter dropped, tin say that she find and takes what she needs when she needs information technology.^[5]

References [edit]

^ A Worn Path. OCLC Worldcat. OCLC 34694187.
^ "Examples of Writing in Third Person". YourDictionary . Retrieved 2019-02-14 .
^ Dazey, Mary Ann (February 1979). "Phoenix Jackson and the Overnice Lady: A note on Eudora Welty'southward "A Worn Path"". American Notes & Queries. 17 (6): 92–93.
^ "Character in Place: Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path"". edsitement.neh.gov . Retrieved 2019-04-sixteen .
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Orr, Elaine (1992). "Unsettling Every Definition of Otherness': Another Reading of Eudora Welty's 'A Worn Path". Southward Atlantic Review. 57 (2): 57–72. doi:10.2307/3200218. JSTOR 3200218.
^ "A Worn Path Themes - eNotes.com". eNotes . Retrieved 2016-11-01 .
^ Piwinski, David J. (Winter 2003). "Mistletoe in Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path"". ANQ. xvi (one): twoscore–42. doi:ten.1080/08957690309598188. S2CID 161248215.
^ Bartel, Roland (Summer 1977). "Life and Decease in Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path"". Studies in Short Fiction. xiv (iii): 288–290.
^ Sykes, Dennis J. (Spring 1998). "Welty's The Worn Path". Explicator. 56 (3): 151. doi:10.1080/00144949809595296.
^ Moberly, Kevin (December 1, 2005). "Toward the North Star: Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" and the Slave Narrative Tradition". Mississippi Quarterly. 59 (1/2): 107–127.
^ Feeley, Kathleen (15 Oct 2001). "Remembering Eudora Welty". America. 185 (eleven): 13–15.
^ Welty, Eudora (1974). "Is Phoenix Jackson's Grandson Actually Dead?". Critical Inquiry. 1 (1): 219–221. doi:10.1086/447784. JSTOR 1342926.
^ ^a ^b "Mistletoe in Eudora Welty's 'A Worn Path'". login.ezproxy.mga.edu . Retrieved 2019-04-sixteen . ^{[ permanent dead link ]}