“A Worn Path” the Antagonist”

Eudora Welty uses setting in "A Worn Path" to impact the story in many different ways. For instance, the natural setting puts many obstacles in Phoenix's way, even though they are inanimate objects. The natural setting could be described as the antagonist in the story. Eudora Welty's setting in "A Worn Path" affects the action, the atmosphere, and the characters. The setting affects the action in "A Worn Path" by placing obstacles in Phoenix's path (Welty, 12). Some of these obstacles include this log bridge, the hill, and the big black dog that knocked her over. The setting also provides space for extremely rich detail, which is used throughout the story. The details of the path are constantly referred to, and they make up a big part of the story. These details also affect the mood of the story.

A Worn Path is a short story written by Eudora Welty in 1941. The short story displays race, age, devotion, fabrication and symbolical narratives. The tale took place in Mississippi, around the time when slavery was possibly coming to a halt. Here you have an elderly lady by the name of Phoenix Jackson, which was very poor with no money or education. During Phoenix journey she traveled alone through the dark pinewood shadows and she talks aimlessly amongst herself. She constantly looked up into the skies as if she was asking for slight request in a prayer form. There were also a few idioms placed with in the short story for example, “a yellow burning under the dark, keep out from under these feet and an odor like copper” (Welty 2-3). There are quite a few ways you may perceive this story; I felt that the writer was stereotyping black women of the past when I first read the story. From the way the story was written it talked about black women's hairstyle, clothes they wore, lack of education, and the certain usage of words. The way Phoenix's words were delivered in the story seemed as if it was a put down. The tale made Phoenix to be knowledgeable by her everyday doing in life, but in reality she was displayed to be ignorant. The story of Phoenix Jackson is an expedition, a dealing of race and imagery.

This story portrays stereotypes, racism, and struggles, which relate to the previous books Malcolm X and Birth of a nation. The struggles that blacks went through definitely makes me appreciate how far people have evolved and the era that I live in. A Worn Path would be read from a third-person's viewpoint. As you read the tale it allows you to picture it from a distance and let the readers interpret the reading in their own perspective. “unimaginable in any hands but hers” (Fitzgerald 494). Some viewers would sense that Eudora Welty was approaching racial meanings in an imperceptible view. Others would probably just take it as being a story based for symbolism. The story leaves a huge gap misleading readers ...