“A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty

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her hand up, but nothing reached down and gave her a pull” (Welty 35).
There are many symbols in “A Worn Path”. The path itself with all its obstacles is symbolic of her hardships in her life and being that she is old and worn is obvious when the narrator says “Her skin had a pattern all its own of numberless branching wrinkles and as though a whole little tree stood in the middle of her forehead, but a golden color ran underneath, and the two knobs of her cheeks were illumined by a yellow burning under the dark” (Welty 2). When she speaks of the chains around her feet, they are symbolic and lead the reader to feel that she was a slave at one time. The most intriguing symbol in the story is the protagonist’s name, Phoenix. Her name is that of a legendary and mythical bird that rises from its own ashes. The colors of what she is wearing, yellow and red is also the same colors as this mythical creature. Like the bird, she has strength and determination that allows her to cope ...

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