A Worn Path Symbolism

Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” demonstrations hardships face by Phoenix Jackson through symbolism and motifs. While developing her character within the flawed imagery Welty leaves her readers with a paradox of their own, who Phoenix truly is. During the 1940’s, Mississippi countryside was neither a kind place “color people” nor an elderly woman on her own but Phoenix got by on her wits and grit. Although this path lies open to interpretation, Phoenix Jackson reveals her own nature with her little gestures for the readers to follow. Phoenix Jackson’s journey; a path well-worn, is not without purpose or meaning thou it unravels with each step as it follows a pattern set by her untied shoelaces which drag behind.
Phoenix, a tiny older woman, carried the weight of life on her delicate shoulders. Welty thereby, enlightens her readers by comparing Phoenix to the pendulum of a grandfather clock, “moving a little from side to side in her steps, with the balanced heaviness and lightness of a pendulum in a grandfather clock” (Welty 1). Heaviness released through symbolism, meaning left to the reader. Whereas, the tapping of a “small cane” in the quite air “meditative” left only one option; Phoenix, a weaker elderly woman tapping of her cane is lost in thought as she traveled down the worn …show more content…
She takes this journey for her grandson over and over again; knowing the results will never change, but she must endure. To illustrate, Welty guides her readers with another image “Her skin had a pattern all its own of numberless branching wrinkles…as though a whole little tree stood in the middle of her forehead…the two knobs of her cheeks … illumined by a yellow burning under the dark” (Welty 1); comparing Phoenix’s strength and fortitude to that of a durable tree. Life creates its own paths where there is no control; therefore, Phoenix learned throughout the years to exercise control over the little things burning