Welty's "A Worn Path"

Emily Hughes

November 11, 2014

Eudora Welty's short story "A Worn Path" describes the journey of Phoenix Jackson, "an old Negro woman with her head in a red rag" (799).  The work centers around the old woman's journey to Natchez during Christmas time.  Although the story is character driven, Welty focuses most of her descriptive language on the scene's vivid setting.  This setting development creates the elements of the story which construct Welty's captivating plot structure.

The language immediately suggests repetition; both Welty (as the narrator) and Phoenix seem familiar with the journey through this landscape.  Descriptions like "At the foot of this hill was a place where a log was laid across the creek" give the reader an immediate intimacy with the story's setting and Phoenix's journey (800).  This intimacy is perpetuated by the story's allusion to the phoenix and its rebirth myth, which takes a cyclical form connecting life and death.

Furthermore, it is the story's landscape that offers the source of conflict within "A Worn Path."  The obstacles Phoenix faces throughout her journey are presented as parts of the worn path.  The hills, thorny bush, black dog, barbed wire, all come from the setting around Phoenix Jackson.  These obstacles are carefully woven within the familiarity of setting provided by Welty's writing; both the familiarities and the difficulties of the landscape are what makes this work such a unique and engaging story.