Symbolism In A Worn Path By Eudora Welty

In Eudora Welty’s short story “A Worn Path”, Phoenix Jackson makes a long journey into town to get medicine for her grandson who has swallowed lye. Eudora Welty used symbolism, setting, and character development to foreshadow that the grandson is dead. Welty’s story leads her readers into a liberating tale representing the love a grandmother has for her grandchild. In the story, Phoenix Jackson refuses to believe her grandson is dead, and in doing so, she annually puts herself in harm’s way to retrieve her “dead” grandson’s medicine. Moreover, Miss Jackson preaches that her grandson is indeed alive, and she will not let anyone tell her otherwise. Along the path towards town, Miss Jackson encounters many obstacles for an elderly woman, including

She even courageously fights through the excruciating pain to go get her grandson the medicine he needs to “live”. On her journey, Phoenix Jackson, being old and elderly, also happens to forget her surroundings and purposes, temporarily forgetting about her grandson. This is why Welty leads her readers to believe that the grandson is indeed dead, though not officially proven. It is because of this spur of forgetfulness that it is believed Jackson forgets, or chooses to ignore, the probability that her grandson is dead because of her and the lye poisoning her suffered from under the care of Phoenix. It is because of her possible amnesia that she travels dangerously into town to retrieve a medicine that is wasted each and every year. In fact, Welty was “inspired to write Phoenix’s story after observing an old woman walking along the horizon in the Mississippi countryside [with a sense of purpose]” (Shmoop Editorial Team) as

It was the year World War Ⅱ started within the United States and the year the United states became involved in chaos. Welty’s short story, according to www.nps.org, is about the representation of Welty’s home town in Mississippi, specifically about the Natchez Trace, or the “Old Trace”, as known by Welty. This trail is represented in “A Worn Path” by the trail Phoenix Jackson travels along to get to town to get her grandson medicine for lye poisoning. Lye poisoning, however, was also “a common ailment in those days in that part of the country… Children would mistakenly drink lye dissolved in water (a cleaning agent)”. Welty wrote a story portraying the hardships of a person living during the 1900s and all they had to deal with. Living during that time was hard, and Welty recognized that without hesitation. Moreover, Welty wanted to display her recognition of the challenges these people faced, but she did not get the idea of “A Worn Path” until after witnessing a lone woman traveling along the Natchez Trace. She dreamed big for the woman, creating a story that would display all thoughts consumed within Welty as the years went along. Eudora Welty also wrote her story during a time of racism and inequality, which is also believed to be displayed within her works. However, Welty brought this issue about throughout her work and finally brought light to it through “A Worn Path”. In addition, the Natchez Trace