Critical Analysis On 2
Critical Analysis On & # 8220 ; A Worn Path & # 8221 ; Essay, Research Paper
Critical Analysis
Eudora Welty? s? A Worn Path? depicts the journey of Phoenix Jackson, an aged black adult female. At first, this journey appears to non be for any evident ground. Phoenix travels over hills and through the forests, digesting multiple adversities, brushs with discourtesy, and minutes of solitariness. By the terminal of the narrative, the reader realizes that Phoenix? s trip does hold a end. She walks to acquire medical specialty for her ill grandson who? swallowed lye? ( P. 105 ) . The subject that runs through the narrative is that Phoenix will digest adversity, discourtesy, and even loneliness for the love of her grandson.
Phoenix faces two different types of adversity, one being the physical facets such as her age, sightlessness, and dotage. There? s no uncertainty that Phoenix is good up in her old ages. When making that aureate age there are many obstructions to get the better of. The organic structure starts to alter in ways that makes us depend on other physical facets. Welty leaves no uncertainty in the reader? s head that Phoenix is old, and that she has the adversities that accompany progressing age. One illustration of many in the authorship is, ? Her tegument had a form all its ain of countless ramifying furrows? ( p. 98 ) . Because she continues to believe of the wellness of her grandson, the way to town becomes nil more than a walk in the park. Welty implies that the memories she has of her grandson seem so existent that non even her physical disablements can maintain her from doing the journey.
One major physical adversity is the fact that Phoenix is most likely blind. ? Her eyes were bluish with age, ? and? She carried a thin, little cane made from an umbrella, and with this she kept tapping the frozen Earth in forepart of her? ( p. 98 ) . The fact that she keeps persistently tapping the Earth in forepart of her could merely bespeak one thing: that she is visually impaired. Welty conveys to us that Phoenix may non be wholly unsighted, but she has to be well impaired to maintain tapping her cane in an annoying mode. Person who is even remotely visually impaired should non be going in the wood. However, because of the love Phoenix has for her grandson, she keeps her end in her head? s sight and does non necessitate her seeing.
Phoenix besides suffers from a job that frequently plagues people at an old age, dotage. For case, she has hallucinations. & # 8220 ; But she sat down to rest & # 8230 ; She did non make bold to shut her eyes and when a small male child brought her a home base with a piece of marble bar on it she spoke to him. ? That would be acceptable, ? she said. But when she went to take it at that place was merely her ain manus in the air & # 8221 ; ( p. 99 ) . This was merely one clip in the narrative where Phoenix negotiations to herself or has hallucinations. Welty leaves us with the feeling that Phoenix frequently behaves this manner. Although she may endure from dotage due to old age, Phoenix does non let these hallucinations to halt her from acquiring to town to acquire medical specialty for her grandson. This proves how much she loves him.
The other type of adversity Phoenix has to postulate with is the load of the trip itself and the obstructions she has to get the better of to acquire to town. The conditions itself is unfortunate, ? It was December? a bright frozen twenty-four hours in the early forenoon? ( p. 98 ) . But for Phoenix, her grandson is ill and his unwellness favors no season. She has to digest the unresponsiveness of winter. Welty reveals through Phoenix that when it comes to the wellness of a loved one, no season has sympathy.
Since the trip is far into the vale and through the forests, Phoenix leaves early in the forenoon to acquire a head start on the twenty-four hours. Phoenix merely comes out of the forests to a steep hill and says, ? Seems like there is ironss about my pess, clip I get this far? ( p. 99 ) . Although Phoenix is a strong willed adult female, the hill is like a mountain seeking to interrupt her will. ? Something ever take a clasp of me on this hill & # 8211 ; pleads I should remain? ( p. 99 ) . Welty shows how Phoenix endures the adversity and hurting of mounting the hill and does non allow it maintain her from doing the trip. The reader sees that even when the hurting is tormenting she keeps mounting that mountain of a hill because she loves her grandson so much.
Phoenix passes through many countries where dark and chilling animate beings live. ? A pleasance I don? Ts see no two-headed serpent coming around that tree, where it came one time? ( p. 100 ) she exclaims, retrieving one summer she had to watch for such animals. This is non surprising, since down in the southern portion of United States there are many lifelessly serpents. It is obvious that because Phoenix lives so far back in the forests, no aid would make her in clip if a snake spot her, and decease would crawl in. Through Phoenix, Welty shows that non even deathly serpents or animate beings can maintain her from seeking the medical specialty needed for her darling grandson.
Along her journey, Phoenix has three exchanges with people, and everyone she meets is white. Each of them treats her with the same disrespectful attitude, although to changing grades of badness. Though she is treated so ill, Phoenix keeps her oculus on her intent, acquiring medical specialty for the grandson she loves so much.
The first individual Phoenix encounters is a huntsman who pulls her up out of the ditch she has fallen in. His surprise at happening her there is apparent when he exclaims, ? Well, Granny! ? ( p. 101 ) . He continues to name her Granny, barely a respectful term for person he does non cognize. When Phoenix tells him why she is out, he foremost assumes she has no ground, that she is non acquiring? anything for [ her ] problem? ( p. 102 ) . He impolitely tells her that the lone ground she is heading to town is to see Santa Claus, since all? old coloured people? ( p. 102 ) want to. Toward the terminal of the exchange, the huntsman advises Phoenix to? remain place, and nil will go on to you? ( p. 103 ) , bespeaking that she has no concern being anyplace but place. Welty indicates that Phoenix says nil in response to the huntsman? s disrespectful statements, but continues to believe merely of her grandson.
The huntsman is disrespectful in other ways. He asks Phoenix? s age ( p. 102 ) , another inappropriate inquiry for a new familiarity. He lies to her, stating her that he would? give [ her ] a dime if [ he ] had any money? ( p. 103 ) . Phoenix even knows he is lying, since she picked up a Ni that fell from his bag already.
After running a Canis familiaris off, the huntsman rhenium
bends to Phoenix and points his gun right at her ( p. 102 ) , as if he knows that he could kill the old black adult female and no 1 would care. He does non even halt to believe that a little kid, loved greatly by Phoenix, waits for her at place. Welty has endowed Phoenix with the strength to be undaunted by the huntsman? s menaces, and to go on on her manner to acquire her grandson? s medical specialty. She will last for him.
The 2nd individual Phoenix converses with is the most civil of them all. While walking in town, Phoenix stops a adult female and asks her to bind her places for her. It is clearly Christmas clip, because the lady has bundles. Although the adult female? s initial response to Phoenix is ill-mannered, ? What do you desire, Grandma? ? ( p. 103 ) , she ties Phoenix? s places. Possibly if it was non a holiday clip of twelvemonth, the lady would non hold been so complaisant, but this fact does non halt Phoenix from acquiring to the physician? s office with tied places. Welty suggests that Phoenis does what she has to make, digesting discourtesy by inquiring a? nice lady to bind up [ her ] shoe? ( p. 103 ) , if it means that the grandson she dearly loves gets his medical specialty.
Phoenix eventually arrives at her finish and is greeted non courteously, but with, ? A charity instance, I suppose? ( p. 104 ) . The attender at the desk assumes that Phoenix has been in earlier, and demands that Phoenix talk up and give her personal information. Asked if she is deaf when she momently does non react, Phoenix is identified by a nurse as? old Aunt Phoenix? ( p. 104 ) , another term meant to be disrespectful. The nurse? s tone seems much more sympathetic at first, as she offers Phoenix a place. However, she excessively shortly becomes frustrated with Phoenix? s lost memory, stating Phoenix she must non? take up our clip this manner? ( p. 104 ) . The nurse refers to Phoenix? s grandson as? an obstinate instance? ( p. 105 ) , and non as a small male child loved by his grandma. Phoenix is hushed by the nurse, who marks? charity? ( p. 105 ) in her book. The nurse so makes certain that Phoenix understands that her grandson will acquire the medical specialty merely every bit long as she is able to come for it. Since it is Christmas clip, the nurse offers to give Phoenix? a few pennies out of my bag? ( p. 105 ) . It is obvious that usually, the nurse would non believe Phoenix worth giving money to.
All of the discourtesy that Phoenix endures at the physician? s office has a intent. It is the monetary value that Phoenix must pay for the continued wellness of her grandson. Welty conveys in many ways that Phoenix knows that if she does non acquire his medical specialty, he will decease. It is easy to see that Phoenix loves him excessively much to allow that go on.
Ribbons of loneliness contribute to the subject of? A Worn Path. ? The really opening line denotes the solitariness and absoluteness of a cold December forenoon? far out in the state? ( p. 98 ) . In that first paragraph, other phrases seem to set up the solitariness of the old adult female. She moves like the? pendulum in a grand-father clock? ( p. 98 ) , which steadily marks clip entirely. At the terminal of the first paragraph, Welty possibly refers to the fable of the Phoenix, the bird who regenerates and rises up out of its ain ashes at the appointive clip. The noises Phoenix Jackson is doing are compared to the? chirping of a lone small bird? ( p. 98 ) . Welty? s entry into the narrative sets the scene for a word picture of the solitariness Phoenix experiences on the journey she makes for the exclusive intent of acquiring medical specialty for her grandson.
More feelings of solitariness are expressed by descriptions of the scenery through which Phoenix passes on her trip. The? forests are deep and still? ( p. 98 ) , and sounds of the bereavement dove, a individual bird? s subject ( p. 99 ) , provide background music for Phoenix? s journey. The Fieldss she traipses through are? quiet and bare? ( p. 101 ) and Phoenix herself declares that she is walking in the slumber of the abandoned cabins and trees with dead foliages ( p. 101 ) . Even the alligators are non attach toing Phoenix, and she tells them they should? kip on, ? and blow your bubbles? ( p. 101 ) . This universe Welty shows is one that Phoenix commits herself to for the good of her grandson. It is cold, dead, and really lonely. The reader knows that certainly, Phoenix would ne’er take such a only way repeatedly if she did non love her grandson so much.
Although Phoenix does hold her grandson, many parts of Welty? s short narrative suggest that Phoenix has been efficaciously entirely in times of discord before. She has a voice that she militias to utilize when call on the carpeting herself, proposing that she has juncture to utilize it frequently ( p. 99 ) . She speaks of waiting to acquire by a two-headed serpent in the summertime ( p. 100 ) . When inquiring the lady on the street to bind her shoe, Phoenix pleads her instance by explicating that she? can? t lacing? mutton quad with a cane? ( p. 103 ) . This statement tells the reader that there is no 1 else who can intertwine Phoenix? s places for her. Although Welty shows that Phoenix? s life and way are lonely, Phoenix endures in her pursuit to assist her grandson because she loves him.
The saddest parts of the narrative are those which explain the deepness of the solitariness of Phoenix? s life. While resting during her walk, she begins to woolgather of an easier life, one with marble-cake on a home base and a small male child to function her ( p. 99 ) . Of class, it is merely a hallucination, and Phoenix moves along the way entirely. She explains to the straw man she thinks might be a shade that she has? heard of nary decease stopping point by? ( p. 100 ) , bespeaking that loved 1s have deserted her in their deceases long ago. Most bosom wrenching is the simple image Phoenix pigments for the nurse and attender of her? small grandson, ? waiting by himself? ( p. 105 ) . Phoenix resolves to utilize the money she has to purchase her lone comrade a windmill ( p. 105 ) . The life she lives with her grandson is obviously lonely and hard, but besides deeply loving. Welty makes it clear that, if non for the grandson Phoenix loves so much, her life would be excessively lonely to go on. Phoenix does do the trip in all its solitariness nevertheless, which is cogent evidence that she loves her ailing grandson.
Phoenix Jackson? s journey paints a portrayal of serious adversity, discourtesy, and solitariness. Through it all, though, Phoenix ever remembers the true intent of the trip. She knows that she needs to populate through the adversities, tolerate the discourtesy, and digest the solitariness for the interest of her grandson. Love could non perchance be expressed more wholly.
