“A Worn Path” is a story of perseverance, love and dedication. Eudora Welty uses the protagonist, Phoenix Jackson, to show strength and determination in the face of hardship. The choice of names for the main character is quite fitting. A phoenix is a mythological bird that is said to live 500 or more years, die in flames and rise again from the ashes (“phoenix [mythology]”).
Just as the phoenix bird has a cycle of life, death, and rebirth, Phoenix takes a dangerous journey through the woods. She falls, gets back up and keeps on toward the goal of getting her grandson’s medicine. She has many obstacles in her way such as her old age, the cold weather, ditches and hills, thorns, wild animals and a hunter with a gun. She does not flinch in the face of these potentially dangerous situations because of her love and dedication to her sick grandson. In some ways, Phoenix’s journey is comparable to the life cycle of the phoenix bird. Her trek is what keeps her alive in a sense. She knows she has to take care of her grandson because she is the only person he has left. The walk she continually takes on the worn path is her rebirth, in essence.
The phoenix bird also has regenerative qualities when it gets injured (“phoenix [mythology]”). The regenerative qualities of the bird are seen in Phoenix’s determination. Each time she suffers a setback, she keeps going. The myth states that the phoenix bird can heal a person with just a tear from its eyes, and make them temporarily immune to death (“phoenix [mythology]”).
When Phoenix notices the sun above her, she talks to it: “‘Sun so high!’ she cried, leaning back and looking, while the thick tears went over her eyes” (Welty 139). This passage relates her tears to the phoenix bird’s tears, and shows her effort to make her grandson temporarily immune from death. Some of the common symbolisms of the bird are hope, rebirth and immortality. For Phoenix’s grandson, she was his only hope for at least short-term exemption from death.
As far as the physical appearance of a phoenix bird, it is said to have bright red and gold feathers (“phoenix [mythology]).Welty uses this physical description of a phoenix bird and Phoenix Jackson’s appearance as another point of association. Phoenix wears her hair tied up in a red rag and running underneath her skin is “a golden color”(Welty 138). The image of a burning phoenix is seen in Phoenix’s face, “the two knobs of her cheeks were illuminated by a yellow burning under the dark”(Welty 138). When speaking of Phoenix tapping her cane, Welty describes the sound as “meditative like the chirping of a solitary little bird” (Welty 138). This alludes to the fact that Welty is using a parallel of the phoenix bird and Phoenix. The way the picture is painted for the reader makes one imagine Phoenix as a part of the nature that surrounds her. She speaks to the animals as if she is one of them.
The myth of the phoenix bird says that it lives in the wilderness. Phoenix’s journey through the woods is symbolic of the life of the phoenix and also of Phoenix’s walk through the wilderness of life. She is a poor, uneducated Negro woman who faces many struggles in life. One knows she is poor because her apron was made of bleached sugar sacks and her umbrella made into a cane. The way she talks tells the reader that she is uneducated and from the south. She gives the reason when speaking to the hospital staff, “I never did go to school, I was too old at the surrender” (Welty 142). The surrender she speaks about is the conclusion to the Civil War. Being an African-American in this time period also subjected her to racism. This is shown in her interaction with the white hunter in the woods and the hospital attendant. Throughout her life she stays perseverant strong and noble, no matter what is in her way. By using the phoenix bird as an emblem for Phoenix, Welty is successful in creating a character of great strength and virtue.
