A Worn Path By Eudora Welty Analysis

A “Worn Path” by Eudora Welty is a strong regional and ethically expressed story written from the perspective of a senile elderly woman named Phoenix Jackson. Ms. Jackson undertakes a journey every year around Christmas to the city of Natchez in order to attain medicine from the doctors to help heal her grandsons inflamed throat. Though she undertakes this journey in the hope of helping cure her grandson’s condition it becomes clear through the text that her grandson has died and she is still experiencing difficult problems grasping reality. Though dead the journey to the city plays an important part in Ms. Phoenix healing process and allows her to come to terms with the truth. In this paper I argue that the journey to Natchez is a pilgrimage …show more content…
Phoenix but reaching the city itself is a sense of relief and joy. It is within the city where the medical office with the necessary medicine which once could have saved her grandson can be found. When Ms. Phoenix reaches the city she is beset with a sense of relief in the fact that she has arrived to a land of hope and dreams in her senile eyes. This trip can be compare to a religious pilgrimage in which the ultimate goal is to reach a destination in which the person reach a landmark which will reveal them to a greater truth and sense of peace. In this trip the medical office symbolizes the final destination as it is the building the poses the bottle of hope in it in the form a medicine bottle. With this bottle Ms. Phoenix can experience a sense misplaced but much needed form of hope each year in knowing that she has a bottle which could potentially help save her grandson life if he was alive. This sense of fulfillment of duty towards her grandson allows Ms. Phoenix to come to peace with the idea that she has done all that she can do and now must face the reality of the situation Without this pilgrimage Ms. Phoenix would not be able to continue on with life as the guilt and the realization of her grandsons death would plague her remaining life. According to the wittings of Roland Bartle a professor at the university of Oregon, “the journey to Natchez becomes a psychological necessity for phoenix as it is her only way …show more content…
Within the story we learn the true nature of the old woman’s grandson’s condition and the reasons for the vast journey. Through this journey the Grandma takes part in a pilgrimage to a land of hope and happiness which is ultimately necessary for her survival. Through this journey we learn the true strength of human affection and the bonds that hold us together. Eudora Whitley story of pain and happiness paint a vivid picture of a love so strong it outlasts he lives of its