A Worn Path

The story the Worn Path is about a very old African-American women named Phoenix Jackson her appearance she wore a long dress, her shoes laces were always untied, her eyes were blue and she wore a red rag over her head. Her appearance isn't the only thing that's worn, her life path is also. Phoenix regularly walks a long distance to obtain medicine for her sick grandchild, regardless of the cold weather and a slippery frozen path, she makes the trip. In a conclusion her journey the worn path she follows demonstrates her immense love for the child the winter season means Phoenix must overcome the additional hardship for cold weather, as well icy paths, which will have many obstacles among them. The main character in the story Phoenix, Phoenix is a mythological bird that is said to ''live a very long life, die in flames, and rise again''. Just as the Phoenix bird has a cycle of life, death and rebirth, Phoenix takes a dangerous journey through the woods she falls, gets back up and keeps on toward the goal of getting medicine to her grandson. Even though she has many obstacles in her way, she does not flinch in the face of potentially dangerous situations, barbwire, the dress, withered Cotton field, scare cow, tress silver in their dead leaves all of these events are the authors way of trying to represent inequality and racism. In her symbolism, Welty demonstrates exactly why racial equality is so important, the obstacles that African Americans face on their path to racial equality, the point of the human nature that the scare crow represents is death. The job of the scare cow is to scare away black crows, death. Also the story is in December which is around Christmas brings mind love and sacrificial gift- giving, and both of these are strong factors in what motivates Phoenix to make the journey into town to get medicine for her grandson.