Examples of Symbolism In A Worn Path

Symbolism is used in everyday life. Symbolism is the use of symbols that represent ideas and qualities. For example pink ribbons represent cancer. Another example of symbolism is a horse shoe. It symbolizes good luck in some cases. A four leaf clover also symbolizes good luck.

In the short story, A Worn Path, phoenix Jackson faces some difficult challenges on her way to Natchez a town that is on the other side of a river. It’s a cold December day and Phoenix is walking to town as she does every year. Phoenix gets her apron caught in a thorn bush. Phoenix gets scared just a little bit but soon she gets herself unhooked from the thorn bush. Later on down the road Phoenix comes upon an open field that looks as if death has passed through. On a tree their sat a buzzard just waiting for something to happen so it can eat. Phoenix tells the bird to go away because she isn’t dead just yet. Phoenix Jackson then goes into a corn field where she encounters a ghost which turns out to be a scare crow. She feels as if she has been tricked. She then starts dancing with the scare crow. Phoenix soon has to cross a dangerous river. Luckily there is a knocked down tree from a storm. Phoenix puts one foot in front of the other very slowly and makes her way across the river. When phoenix finally sees Natchez she is knocked into a ditch by a hunting dog. A white man helps her out of the ditch that she is in. when the white man is talking to Phoenix he puts his hand into his pocket and pulls out quickly and when he does that he doesn’t realize that he has just made a nickel fall out of his pocket. When the white man is distracted by a dog fight Phoenix sees the nickel that fell out of the man’s pocket and she bends down to grab the nickel she feels...

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...e air. This hallucination acts as an inner part of her that deeply seeks unity among all people.” that just means that she is getting to old to be going on the trips that she is going on especially to the other side of the river bank to Natchez where she gets the medicine for her grandson.

In A Worn Path they use symbolism as examples to better explain the meaning of the story that is being told. Eudora Welty also uses symbolism to bring things to life in her short story. In A Worn Path phoenix goes through alot of trouble to get medicine for her grandson and then she gets to her destination and phoeinx forgets what she was going to do.

Works Cited

Cummings, Michael J. “A Worn Path Study guide.” Cummings Studyguides.N.p., 2011. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.

Schnaila.“Symbolism in “A Worn Path.”College Essay Help and Ideas.N.p., 5 Mar. 2012. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.