The idea behind this story is the undying, unselfish love this grandmother has for her grandson. Imagine a one hundred year old women walking with a cane made from an umbrella walking on a beaten path through the woods. This is difficult for my sixty-five year old mother so the thought of a little old lady doing this with a cane seems impossible; not to mention it is December and freezing outside. The old lady has several obstacles to overcome on her journey to the doctor to get medication. The name of the short story is “A Worn Path”.
One of the first obstacles she runs into is the hill. Every time she comes to climb the hill, Phoenix says it seems like there are "chains about my feet" (Welty, “Path” 1). This hill symbolizes the hard life that Phoenix has had to travel and sacrifice in order to get what she wants. Because she was very old and small and she walked slowly (“Path” 1). After overcoming this first obstacle and on her trip down the hill, "a bush caught her dress" (Welty, “Path” 2).
Although it was not easy for her to escape from it, she was still happy and also gave the bush a good comment, “Thorns, you doing your appointed work…” Her next obstacle was the log laid across the creek. Being confident, she mounted the log with the statement ‘now comes the trial’ and finished it with another lovely one ‘I wasn’t as old as I thought’. Though she felt so hungry that she imagined meeting a little boy with a slide of marble-cake, she tried her best to keep going on and other obstacles were waiting for her. After creeping and crawling through a barbed-wire fence, she passed through a dead corn field whose corn was taller than her head and she felt like she was passing ‘through the maze now’. Taking a scarecrow for a ghost, without any fears, she said sharply ‘Ghost, who be you
The Theme of love in A Worn Path The story “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty is about an old black woman named Phoenix Jackson who goes through this path where she encounters many obstacles to get medication for her ill grandson. Phoenix faces many obstacles such as animals, her advanced age, and prejudice. Finally at the end of her travels Phoenix arrives at the city and goes into the building where she is suppose to get the medication when she forgets what she came to the city for. The nurses continually ask Phoenix if she is ok, and she would only stay quiet, until finally a nurse asked Phoenix if her grandson was ok or if he had died. From there on we don't know if Phoenix’s grandson is dead, but we do know that she walked that worn path, because of the love she felt for her grandson.
She lives in a small community who travels through the fields and wilderness to get medicine for her sick grandchild. It is a cold December day and when the Earths ground is slippery and unknown; she still finds the determination and will power to travel the distance from the love she feels within. A phoenix is a strong-willed bird, which often represents ‘a rise from the ashes’ or rebirth, and also symbolizes inner strength and a long life. The main character, Phoenix, shows these characteristics as she makes her journey. Although she is old and fragile, she never gives up.
The old lady, despite her age and difficulty to walk, is determined to get to town to get medicine for her sick grandson. She uses her “ thin and small cane made from an umbrella” to get around. The narrator clearly explains the condition of the “deep and still” woods and how they prevent her from advancing: “ Something always take a hold of me on this hill – pleads I should stay.” Thorny bushes would grasp her dress, trapping her. But her steadfastness continued on as she dangerously crossed the log across the creek where she could have easily fallen regarding her physical state. “I wasn’t as old as I thought.” She would say.
Many hero’s journeys take place in Amy Tan’s novel The Joy Luck Club. It tells the stories of four immigrant women from China and their four American-born daughters. Each of the mothers has a tragic past in China that she wants to share with her daughter. Each of these women struggles to find her identity and understand one another. One of the unforgettable women, An-mei Hsu, enters the dark forest and embarks on a dangerous journey when she chooses to leave her family and go with her mother.
As Sandberg and Chavez write in their article there is deep-rooted stereotypes- we expect boys to be confident and leaders, but if a girl acts like that, we do not like this. All these expectations and stereotypes make life harder for women. In addition, women still need to fight for equality. In today society is harder for women to
This is an appropriate name for the character in this short story, for she too has a strength and decorum about her that enables her to arise from the difficulties of life imposed on her by racism, in order to obtain care for her grandson. Achieving this goal satisfies her need to love and care for her grandson, and in so doing, also transmits this love and care to a new generation, enabling it to rise above racism as well. In this way, she carries two important themes of the story: first, the ugliness of racism that tries to defeat this strong woman, secondly, the power of love seen in her determination to do everything she can to obtain help for her grandson. “A Worn Path” communicates a theme to humankind about rising up to meet life’s challenges; in fact, the connections between the literary elements of setting to plot and character to symbolism contribute to the story’s overall theme of love, and rising up through determination. In “A Worn Path” the setting is an integral part of the plot structure due to the main character’s age and poverty, as well as the social limitations of the time period.
This was a hard lifestyle and she had to be hard along with it, according to the writer. Along with her familys’ livestock, she had to herd her uncles’ too. This turned to be frustrating as there was no reward to look forward to after doing a good job. She continues to describe the nomadic life, showing the burden of having to