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A Worn Path

 

            In "A Worn Path", Eudora Welty writes of an Old Negro woman, one of her many routine trips into town for medicine for her grandson, and the obstacles she confronts on this trip. The main character, Phoenix Jackson, is presented in the story as an allusion to the ancient Egyptian myth of the Phoenix, a bird who is consumed by fire after 500 years, only to be reborn out of its own ashes. Besides the obvious similarity in the names, the Welty uses symbolism and imagery related to this myth, such as the changing of seasons, the use of related colors, and the nearing of time, to details the theme of the story.
             As the myth goes, after a certain amount of time has passed the Phoenix is consumed by fire and subsequently is reborn again. Throughout the story the author uses imagery of the changing of seasons to parallel this aspect of the myth. During her trip, Phoenix observes the landscape and the creatures she happens upon and relates them to the time of year. The descriptions of winter and summer symbolize the death and rebirth, respectively, of the fiery Phoenix. As she makes her way along in the furrow, Phoenix states that she is "glad this is not the season for bulls, and the good Lord made his snakes to curl up and sleep in the winter. A pleasure I don't see no two-headed snake coming around that tree, where it come once. It took a while to get by him, back in the summer"(345). In this example, the snake becomes dormant in the winter, but flourishes once again in the summer as if it were "reborn." The winter weather in the story creates a landscape of bare fields and dead trees, which can be interpreted as death and consumption of life. The main character continues along the path "swaying through the quiet bare fields, through the little strings of trees silver in their dead leaves, past cabins silver from weather, with the doors and windows boarded shut"(346). By using imagery of the changing of the seasons in the story, the author symbolizes the death and rebirth of the Phoenix.


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