In the short story ‘ A Worn Path ,’ Eudora Welty seeks to provide her readers with a story focusing on an elderly African American woman, who embarks on a familiar journey with the focus being to get medicine for her grandson. The story seeks to examine the concepts of love and devotion as key factors that push people towards a given goal or outcome. Through the story, Welty is able to bring out a wide array of themes, which help towards ensuring that readers are able to connect to the general messages that are bring brought out as part of the story. The following is an analysis of the main themes, as can be seen from the short story.
The first key theme that can be seen from the story is perseverance, which is seen from the fact that although Phoenix Jackson faces a wide array of hurdles that are likely to impact on her journey, she keeps her eye on the ultimate prize. Welty (1941) reflects on a journey that Phoenix Jackson makes every time her grandson needs medicine and by the time that readers catch up with her the grandson has been using the medicine for a long time. The story shows that perseverance acts as one of the key factors that every individual ought to embrace, as this would help build on personal connections in life.
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The second key theme that can be seen extensively within the short story is versions of reality. In the story, Phoenix Jackson accepts many things that most of the readers would consider as a fantasy. An example can be seen from the continued habit of talking to animals, which most of the readers would consider as being an active imagination (Welty, 1941). However, it must be noted that her acceptance of different versions of reality seek to change the way she experiences the world while working towards changing the perception among the readers. That does not hamper her ambition towards engaging with her non-human surroundings as of this would be considered as being normal.
The third theme that can be considered from the short story is old age. Although this is a short story, the word ‘old’ appears throughout the story at least twenty times, which serves as a clear indication of the fact that it is the most common adjective (Welty, 1941). Phoenix Jackson seeks to build on the understanding of age from the perspective of strength and endurance while ignoring the stereotypes created that age can only be associated with weakness and decline. Phoenix seeks to defy the stereotype due to her determination to get what she intends with the view that this would be the only way through which to show her love for her grandson.
The short story also brings out contrasting regions, as it feels like readers are connected to two settings in the story, which are the country portion and the city portion. Throughout the story, Welty (1941) has been able to create a major difference in terms of atmosphere between these two settings. The difference creates a striking avenue through which to bring out the fact that indeed Phoenix Jackson is able to lead a life that embraces lifestyles that can reflect on the two different regions.
In summary, Eudora Welty brings out several key themes that can be noted in the short ‘ A Worn Path .’ Some of the key themes that have been identified as part of the story are perseverance, versions of reality, old age, and contrasting regions. Each of these themes seeks to build on the general understanding of the story while ensuring that readers are able to connect to the overall message that is brought out by the author.
References
Welty, E. (1941). A worn path . Creative Education.
