Eudora Welty's A Worn Path

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People often face many roadblocks on their way to success that deter them from believing that they can reach their goal. They allow trials to get in the way of the real end goal, and thus, stop short of achieving. In the short story "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty, the main character Phoenix Jackson provides an example to people on how they should not allow trials to hold them back. Welty's use of character, symbolism, and similes help to reveal the theme that with patience and determination, people can achieve anything. To begin with, the character of Phoenix Jackson shows that patience and determination help people to achieve their tasks because she was able to complete hers, despite her age and physical limitations. Jackson is a "...very …show more content…

One of the first tests that she came upon was a hill where "[s]omething always take a hold of [her] on this hill—pleads [that she] should stay" (Welty 1006). She finds herself struggling to make it up a hill that seems to never want her to make it over; however, her determination to continue on defeats the idea of giving up. The hill symbolizes a trial that seems like it is too big to overcome and one in which people say someone cannot make it over. Jackson's example encourages the reader not to listen to what others think they can and cannot achieve, and climb over their trials with a determined spirit. Jackson comes across another hazard on the path in the form of a white hunter who, as Wilson notes, "… helps her out of a ditch but patronizes her and trivializes her journey"(316). He makes the assumption that because she is colored she is "… going to town to see Santa Claus", thus undermining the fact that she is making this hard journey to get medicine for her grandson (Welty 1009). Instead of getting angry with the hunter about his racist remark, "… something held Old Phoenix very still" and she patiently waited for the hunter to leave her be (Welty 1009). Jackson's approach to tackling this test informs the reader that sometimes trials should just be ignored. Rather than trying to fight the hardship, people should keep their dignity and wait until it passes them. The struggles that Jackson faces on her path help the reader to learn how they can overcome roadblocks in their life without getting frustrated and give up on their goals. Welty's use of symbolism helps to bring the universal theme, through patience and determination people are able to do anything placed before them, to

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