A Worn Path by Eudora Welty: The Journey of a Black Woman

Eudora Welty: Life and Literary Journey

Eudora Welty was born on April 13, 1909, and died on July 23, 2001, both in Jackson, Mississippi. Welty initially attended Mississippi State College before transferring to the University of Wisconsin. Her first short story was published in 1936. Before her book won acclaim, she worked at a radio station in Jackson, Mississippi. Even after her passing, her short stories and works remain humorous and often feature distinct speech patterns. During the Great Depression, Welty worked as a photographer for the Works Progress Administration Guide to Mississippi, a role that sparked a lifelong hobby in photography. In her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi, she was employed by a radio station and two newspaper stations before receiving popular and critical acclaim. After the release of her first short story in 1936, her works were regularly featured in magazines and newspapers (Welty, 1991).

'A Worn Path by Eudora Welty: The Journey of a Black Woman'

This is the journey of a black woman named Phoenix Jackson, who undertakes a long journey from her hometown in rural Mississippi to Natchez to obtain medicine for her grandson. She begins her journey along a country path through some pine trees. She is alone except for the forest animals she hears and sees and occasionally talks to. After passing through the pines, she navigates oak trees, where her dress gets caught on a thorny bush. It's tense, but she manages to free herself without tearing her dress. Next, she encounters a creek with a log laid across it as a bridge. It's a piece of cake if you're a young gymnast, a little tricky if you're an old woman walking with a cane fashioned from an umbrella. She makes it just fine, though. Phoenix sits down for a rest after crossing the creek and imagines that a little boy brings her a piece of cake. The next phases of her journey include crawling under a barbed wire fence, walking through a cotton field that's dying off for the winter, and passing through a field of dead corn, where she mistakes a scarecrow for a ghost. Phoenix laughs at her mistake and chalks it up to old age. Then comes what Phoenix considers to be the easy part; she follows the wagon tracks through the fields to a ravine where she stops for a drink of water and then passes through the swampy part.

A big black dog leaps out of the weeds and knocks Phoenix over. She can't get up on her own, but a hunter passes by and lifts her up. The hunter asks Phoenix about her age, where she is coming from, and where she is going. He marvels at the distance she has traveled and thinks she wants to go to town to see Santa Claus because it is Christmas time. Phoenix tells the black dog to attack the hunter and his dog. The hunter tries to scare the black dog away by unleashing his own dog and by shooting his gun after the dog. The hunter laughs at being able to scare him. While the hunter is preoccupied with the dogs, Phoenix spots a nickel on the ground. Phoenix knows it is not hers but takes it regardless. The hunter points his gun at Phoenix, but she is not afraid. He says he would give her a dime if he had any money and then advises her to go home, but she continues on.

Phoenix finally arrives in the city of Natchez. Phoenix asks a woman shopper to tie her shoes because she can't lace them herself. She thinks the dragging laces aren't appropriate for going into a city building. No one likes to be underdressed. Phoenix walks up the steps of a big building, and the attendant takes one look at her and thinks that she is a charity case. The attendant tries with no luck to get information about Phoenix and what she wants. A nurse recognizes Phoenix as a woman who visits the facility on a regular basis to get medicine for her grandson. The nurse asks how the boy's throat is. Phoenix does not answer her questions, prompting the nurse to ask if the boy has died. Phoenix finally answers that the boy has not died but that the time has come back around for her to retrieve the medicine that will heal his throat. The nurse gives her the medicine, marking it down as charity in a record book. As Phoenix leaves, the attendant gives her a nickel because it is Christmas time. Phoenix considers the two nickels she now has and decides to buy her grandson a paper windmill with the money and desperately heads back to her home.

As the old woman begins her journey on an early morning in December, she comes across an older white hunter who urges her to return home, laughing: "I know you old colored people wouldn't miss going to town to see Santa Claus." The hunter calls Phoenix 'Granny,' unaware that her grandson's distress has caused her to climb hills, tangle with a thorn bush, creep through a barbed-wire fence, and face the trial of crossing a creek on a log with her eyes shut and her slender cane leveled fiercely before her. This interaction highlights the societal attitudes and racial prejudices of the time, adding depth to Phoenix's character and her resilience in the face of adversity. I find this to be a very mysterious threshold between dream and waking in several of Welty's experiences and Phoenix's obstacles include a confrontation with a ghost that turns out to be a scarecrow, a hallucinatory visitation from a boy, the medicine that awaits her in the doctor's office, at the top of a 'tower of steps,' has the almost magical power to restore breath to the small boy, whose throat closes up every once in a while (Welty, 1941).

Phoenix exhibits a distinctively feminine version of heroism from women's roles as guardians of children. Men's quests, on the other hand, involve battles for dominance and are concerned with self-definition. Welty contrasts the old woman with the white hunter who helps her out of a ditch but proves the most vicious impediment in her path, who offers her a slice of cake, and that she is walking in the sleep of old women under a spell. "A Worn Path" has many themes, including love, immorality, and charity. Love is a simple theme to compare, relate, and analyze as a real-world example. In "A Worn Path," love is depicted through Phoenix and her grandson, highlighting how she walks the long journey to get him medicine because she will do anything and everything to care for him and protect him at all costs (Marrs, 2006).

Real-World Examples of Love and Charity

A real-world example of love can be found in the CNN 10 Hero by the name of Naja Mazie. She recently opened a homeless shelter in Detroit, Michigan, primarily targeting homeless mothers and their children. She takes these wonderful people in and teaches them how to do tasks used in everyday life, such as teaching them how to cook, how to sew, and even how to obtain a high school diploma and go to college. Naja and the rest of her team are preachers and doctors who openly practice their religion within the shelter. The biggest goal that the shelter has is to express love in every situation that they encounter, no matter what the results of the situation (Mazie, 2022).

By juxtaposing these real-world examples with the journey of Phoenix Jackson, we can better understand the universal and timeless themes of love, resilience, and charity that permeate Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path." These themes continue to resonate, offering insights into the human condition and the enduring power of compassion.

References

Welty, E. (1991). The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Welty, E. (1941). A Worn Path. In The Atlantic Monthly.

Marrs, S. R. (2006). Eudora Welty: A Biography. Harcourt.

Mazie, N. (2022). CNN 10 Hero. CNN.