A Worn Path

Life is often described as a path. Our journey through this world, with its unexpected obstacles and stumbling blocks, is easily compared to one woman’s trip to town on a mission of unselfish love, to get medicine for her grandson. Whether the worn path in this story is representative of Phoenix’s life, or simply life in general, it is filled with symbols for the obstacles and evils found in any one person’s journey through a lifetime.
It isn’t difficult to find several examples of symbolism in “A Worn Path.” The author, Eudora Welty, uses many, and most of them are nature symbols. The first one that becomes apparent to the reader is the main character’s name, “Phoenix Jackson” (105). A phoenix is a mythical bird that rises from the ashes of its own destruction to begin anew. If Phoenix Jackson is seen as a representative of her race after the civil war, it is easy to find a connection. Just as a phoenix will rise from the ashes, so too did the African Am...