What are three symbols in A Worn Path?
The "red rag" that Phoenix Jackson, the protagonist, ties around her hair is symbolic of her inner fire and strength and perseverance. Red is commonly associated with very strong emotions, and Phoenix certainly has strength to spare. Further, the mythical phoenix lives again and again, growing old and then bursting into flame, then rising again from the ashes. This also makes her name itself a symbol. Like the mythical creature, Phoenix seems to have lived much longer than most, longer than seems normal; her name implies that there is something magical inside her that keeps her alive. It seems likely that this magic that keeps her alive is her love—also often symbolized by red—for her ailing grandson. Further, the narrator describes her deeply wrinkled face as having "a golden color" that runs underneath her skin, and her "cheeks were illumined by a yellow burning under the dark." These golden and yellow colors are symbolic of her inner fire as well; one significant clue is that the narrator actually uses the word "burning" to describe Phoenix's coloring. Like the phoenix, she burns and lives.
What are three symbols in A Worn Path?
There are many symbols in "A Worn Path." The first is that of the title, the path itself. It is a physical path, but it is also Phoenix's path through life, which she has been walking a long time.
Second comes her name. It is phoenix, the mythical bird that was burned up and reborn. She was a slave and reborn free, and is reborn in different ways throughout this story.
Third—and we're still early in the story—is her walk. She walks "moving a little from side to side in her steps, with the balanced heaviness and lightness of a pendulum in a grand-father clock." She is walking out time, back and forth, like a mechanical clock that just keeps going.
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What are the character, language, setting, and symbolism in "A Worn Path"?
The central character in the story is Phoenix Jackson, an elderly African American woman who takes an arduous journey to obtain needed medication for her grandson, who suffers from lye poisoning. Phoenix displays a fierce determination in making this journey, and at the end it is revealed that she has made the trip many times before. She is motivated both by the love of her grandson and her optimistic outlook.
"Language" is a fairly broad topic, so I'll focus on the language that strikes me most in this story: Phoenix's dialect. Consider her reaction when she realizes that she has not encountered a ghost on her path:
"You scarecrow," she said. Her face lighted. "I ought to be shut up for good," she said with laughter. "My senses is gone. I too old. I the oldest people I ever know. Dance, old scarecrow," she said, "while I dancing with you."
Through the use of a vernacular that reflects her setting in the deep South and also is reminiscent of an older African American dialect, the characterization of Phoenix is further developed.
"A Worn Path" is set in Mississippi's woods as Phoenix makes her way toward the city of Natchez. It's a cold December day sometime in the wake of the Great Depression.
The windmill Phoenix wishes to purchase for her grandson at the end of the story symbolizes hope and childhood wonder. She says that he "going to find it hard to believe there such a thing in the world," and all she has focused on up to this point is obtaining his medically necessary treatment. This gift is different and represents the joy inherent in classic childhood treasures and the gift of finding something beautiful in the midst of hardship. The path Phoenix walks symbolizes the difficult path her own life has taken. It has had snakes, tough hills to climb, and people who have threatened her life, yet Phoenix has persevered, tackling one obstacle after the next through deliberate tenacity.
What are some possible symbols in "A Worn Path"?
The central symbol in the story is the path Phoenix Jackson follows each time she journeys into town to get medicine for her grandson. It is long and arduous. By following the path, Phoenix must climb hills, fight her way through thorns, and crawl under a barbed-wire fence. She must cross a stream by walking over it on a log. This journey would be difficult for anyone, but Phoenix is very old and frail. Her eyesight has failed; she knows her journey by heart because she has made it many times.
Phoenix risks her life each time she follows the path, in order to help her little grandson. She faces and overcomes every obstacle. The path, therefore, symbolizes her deep and unselfish love for him. Another symbol of love is the little paper windmill she buys for him at the story's conclusion. In order to buy the toy, she had to steal one nickel from the hunter and beg for another from the nurse.
The title itself is the first clue that the path will function as a symbol in the story. The path must be especially important to become the story's title. Also, the path is "worn," suggesting it has been traveled many times. The reader might ask why Phoenix has followed that path so often. Her motivation must be very strong; love is one of the strongest of human motivations. That Phoenix would buy a toy also suggests love since gifts are frequently given out of love. One of the best questions a reader can ask in analyzing a story is "Why?"
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