A_Worn_Path

A Worn Path Life as a Journey in Welty's "A Worn Path" The story "A Worn Path" begins and ends with a journey by Phoenix Jackson. It tells a story of sheer purpose as Phoenix Jackson makes a long journey into town to get medicine for her chronically ill grandson. She begins her voyage to town on "a bright frozen day in the early morning" in December. This is a journey in which she has taken before, and now the time has come where she must travel it again. As the story begins, we are introduced to our main character, Phoenix Jackson. She is described as a small old Negro woman. I believe that the name the author gives the main character is given for a reason. The legend of the Phoenix is about a mythical sacred bird of the ancient Egyptians. The bird is said to come out of Arabia every 500 years to Heliopolis, where it burned itself on the altar and rose again from it's young and beautiful. Phoenix, the old woman in the story, represents the myth of this bird because she is described as being elderly and near the end phoenix, journey, story, hunter, town, life, come, worn, time, represents, old, grandson, woman, way, tells, skin, path, jackson, golden, described, bird, begins, author, whole, trip, small, shows, scene, says, reason, person, negro, medicine, makes, make, main, long, later, herself, given, every, deep, color, character, around, again, young, yet, years, wrinkly