Throughout the story, Phoenix encounters various dangers, and mysterious occurrences in the forest as she walks on. Eudora Weltys father Christian Welty had been raised on a farm. The author of A Worn Path, Eudora Welty creates a symbolic passage in which the elderly protagonist is challenged by the path’s inhabitants and various prejudices. This last word stresses the fear of the old lady, because, as we know, when we are afraid, we respond instinctively, and this "shout" can be interpreted as a perfect example of loss of rationality. Welty died from pneumonia at the age of ninety-two on July 22, 2001, in Jackson, Mississippi. We can see that she is very scared when she says "Ghost" "sharply". She tries to guess who or what it is and at the second trial, she begins thinking that the thing is a ghost. She goes on and walking in a field of dead corn, she begins to see a "tall, black, and skinny. It has qualities like pertinence, persistence and strength. Her name Phoenix is after the Egyptian mythological bird phoenix, which is supposed to live long (great age). She is very courageous because she can overcome some very harsh psychological realities because she can make of her fear her strenth. Answer : A Worn Path is a story of Phoenix's difficult journey from her village to town to fetch medicine for her grandson.
#A WORN PATH BY EUDORA WELTY SUMMARY HOW TO#
But when she has time to relax her nerves, she says: "I wasn't as old as I thought." Here we see that the thing she was afraid of, was more her misjudgment of her capacities, and that because this is a usual path, she knows right away how to overcome the difficulties.
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She will not let this obstacle stop her whole journey she gathers her courage and "Putting her right foot out, she mounted the log and shut her eyes she opened her eyes and she was safe on the other side." By closing her eyes and trusting her senses, she gets to the other side of the creek very easily. A Worn Path study guide contains a biography of Eudora Welty, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Phoenix knows the territory well, and she is used to this kind of trial. When she gets to the creek, she is scared, but ready to face the difficulty of it: "Now comes the trial", she says. This quality is shown in her strength to overcome a physical obstacle such as the creek, the psychological barriers such as when she "meets" the ghost, and the contrast with the hunter. She is "an old Negro woman" that shows great courage going to town through the woods to get medicine for her grandson. In Eudora Welty's short story "A Worn Path" we are introduced to the main protagonist, Phoenix Jackson.