29 pages • 58 minutes read
Eudora WeltyA Worn Path
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1941A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Phoenix
Welty names her protagonist after the mythical phoenix bird that undergoes a series of deaths and rebirths. An average lifespan for the phoenix was believed to last centuries. The bird appears in Egyptian, Greek, Islamic, and Christian mythology. Traditionally, it was depicted as a large, eaglelike bird with vivid red and golden feathers. It was typically linked to worship of the sun. As one of its lifecycles neared an end, the phoenix made a nest and immolated itself. After its death, a new phoenix rose from the ashes to complete another lifecycle.
Welty depicts Phoenix as wearing a red rag tied around her head, and beneath her wrinkled, dark skin, “a golden color ran underneath, and the two knobs of her cheeks were illumined by a yellow burning” (142). This description symbolically links Phoenix to the mythical bird. She is old and feeble yet illuminated by a vital force that burns within her like fire. Phoenix’s figurative fire comes from her love and devotion to her grandson.
As a symbol of rebirth, regeneration, and resurrection, the phoenix endures through time. Similarly, Phoenix’s advanced age proves that she too endures through time. Her cyclical trips along the worn can be likened to the lifecycles of the phoenix. The climax of the phoenix’s life occurs when it lights itself on fire, initiating a rebirth from the ashes. When Phoenix finally remembers her grandson as the reason for her trip, the moment is described as “a flicker and then a flame of comprehension across her face” (148). This climactic part of the story gives Phoenix a renewed sense of purpose, and the revelation is likened to fire.
The Woods
Woods and forests are a standard motif in myths, fairy tales, and folk stories. Never a mere setting, the woods are highly charged with danger, magic, and inspiration. They often represent the unknown or forbidden. Characters are prompted on their journey through the woods by a great quest or the need to resolve a problem. Woods are common in stories that follow a hero’s journey. Stories like the Grimm brothers’ “Hansel and Gretel” and the African American folktales of Br’er Rabbit feature vulnerable characters who must contend with various threats and oppositional forces against the backdrop of a magical forest.
Welty makes a connection between her story and myth by setting the bulk of the action in the woods of the Natchez Trace, a real historical trail that gained a reputation for wildness and danger in the 1800s (Ress, Thomas V. “Natchez Trace.” Encyclopedia of Alabama. 18 Oct. 2016). Indeed, things are often not what they seem as Phoenix travels. She mistakes a thorn bush for an innocuous green bush, sees a vision of a boy bringing her cake, mistakes a scarecrow for a ghost, and is visited by a “dream” when she falls into a ditch and reaches out to a presence for help when nothing is actually there. She also encounters and outwits adversaries in the black dog and white hunter.
Characters who make a perilous journey through the woods also find support and reprieve along the way. Phoenix mostly relies on her own resources, but she finds nourishment in the spring flowing through a fallen sweet-gum tree. “Nobody know who made this well, for it was here when I was born,” she says to herself (144). Much like the Natchez Trace, the spring has unknown origins and is seemingly timeless. These qualities, combined with its sweet taste, imbue it with mystical qualities that give Phoenix the strength to continue.
The Worn Path
Welty names her story after the literal path Phoenix takes to get to Natchez, where she can procure her grandson’s medicine. The path is worn because she has traveled it many times, but it may also be worn down by other travelers who have used it to reach their destination. This also alludes to the real Natchez Trace, which stretches across Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. The trail has ancient origins as a path traveled by animal herds and Indigenous Americans. It became a trade route in the 1700s until the advent of the steamboat and other alternate routes, when it fell into disuse (Ress). In this story, the path serves a similarly crucial purpose: It is a means for achieving a specific goal.
Phoenix’s path is both predictable and unpredictable. As she reaches various points she orients herself by spoken announcements. In some cases, she must veer from the path entirely, and one part—the cornfield—she calls a “maze.” Part of the path is no path at all but simply a familiar and necessary way of travel. She encounters various obstacles and delays, but she always finds a way to keep going and accomplish her goal.
The trail terminates in Natchez, but Phoenix’s path continues into town. She must navigate the literal town as well as the racial prejudice and impatience from the staff in the doctor’s office. She knows she will be considered a “charity” case because she cannot afford her grandson’s medicine. Though she maintains her dignity, she knows that to some extent she is at the mercy of the white world around her. Here the “path” takes on metaphoric meaning, symbolizing the worn path Black Americans must travel through racism and white supremacy. Ultimately, the path paves the way for her grandson’s future and for improved quality of life for Black Americans more broadly. However, the path is not simple; as Phoenix’s journey demonstrates, progress toward racial equality requires persistence and endurance.
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By Eudora Welty
