A Worn Path

Introduction

Eudora Welty's ''A Worn Path,'' first published in Atlantic Monthly in February, 1941, is the tale of Phoenix Jackson's excursion through the woods of Mississippi to the village of Natchez. The story won anO. Henry Prize the year it was published and later appeared in Welty's assemblage The Wide Net. Since then, it has been often anthologized. At first the story appears simple, but its mythic undertones and ambiguity gives a deepness and richness that has been praised by critics. Welty has said that she was inspired to compose the story after seeing an vintage African-American woman walking alone across the southern landscape. In "A Worn Path," the woman's trek is spurred by the want to obtain surgery for her sick grandson. Along the way, Phoenix encounters several obstacles and the story becomes a quest for her to overwhelm the trials she faces, which reflector her plight in society at large. The story is one of the best examples of Welty's composing, which is renowned for its realistic portrayal of the American South, particularly throughout the depression.

"A Worn Path" describes the excursion of an aged black woman named Phoenix Jackson who walks from her dwelling to the town of Natchez to get surgery for her sick grandson. The countryside as Phoenix perceives it becomes a primary focus of the vividly evoked narrative; environment is depicted as alternately beautiful and as an impediment to Phoenix's progress. As she walks, she struggles against intense fatigue and poor eyesight, as well as such obstacles as thorn bushes and barbed wire. The blended effects of her vintage age, her poor vision, and her poetic outlook of the world intensify the lyricism and symbolism of the narrative. For example, she mistakes a scarecrow for a dancing "ghost" until she draws close sufficient to feel ...