Literary Devices In A Worn Path By Eudora Welty

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“A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty depicts many literary devices that tell the struggles and hardships that African Americans faced while on their journey towards racial equality. The symbolism, setting, and imagery are literary devices in the story that evokes feelings of strength, hope, and perseverance to anyone who reads it. The main character is an elderly, African American woman, named Phoenix Jackson, who is slowly walking down a trial in the pinewood, “Far out in the country there was an old Negro woman with her head tied in a red rag, coming along a path through the pinewoods. Phoenix Jackson lives far out in the country, miles from town, in the southern state of Mississippi, who is beginning another journey into town. Phoenix Jackson’s motivation for continuing to travel this worn path, …show more content…
A Phoenix is an ancient mythological bird that is associated with the sun, birth, death, sacrifice, and re-birth. Its associated to someone of high morals, as well as, divine power and knowledge. The story of the mythological creature is that of a great bird, the Phoenix, who builds a large nest, sets it afire and throws itself into the flames to be consumed every 500 years. From the ashes and flames, it is reborn and springs whole and renewed. The legend follows that it’s from this willingness to sacrifice bodily existence, it experiences immortality and wisdom at the cost of the great pain and suffering of temporary death. Similarly, Phoenix Jackson’s continuous selflessness parallels the mythological creature. Phoenix Jackson, like the bird she is compared to, symbolizes the continual rising-up of an old woman through her continuous acts of bravery and selflessness. In addition to the main characters name the title “A Worn Path,” also is a clear representation of the continuous racial unjust African Americans and Phoenix Jackson endured during their
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A Worn Path By Eudora Welty Essay

“A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty is a short story. The story begins with a woman from the south named Phoenix Jackson. On a cold December day, an elderly woman named Phoenix Jackson makes the long walk down a worn path to the city of Natchez. Along the way she runs into many different people, animals, and nature. Some of the things she sees are real and others are things that her eyes are making up. A black dog knocks her down and a young white hunter helps her up. The hunter is rude though and even…

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