Michael Thomas Harbuck							Enc 1201
SCC-Sanford, FL, USA							20-04-2008
Research Paper – Spring 2008						Mr. Ambrose

						
Analysis and Comparison of “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty

The many vivid and in-depth analysis of the short Story “A Worn Path” by a woman 

from Mississippi named Eudora Welty has spawned much conjecture as well as much 

contemplated critical thinking.  The men and women who have spent many hours reading and 

interpreting the overwhelming imagery and symbolism within this American piece of fiction 

have done justice to the art of writing in their vibrantly different views and opinions.  As stated 

in several of the sources from which ideas, commentary, and viewpoints were reviewed, without 

asking the author whether the planning and construction of this or any other piece of literature 

has been a deliberate and conscious act of bringing a many-fold mental picture of the world, 

either imagined or as true as any of the laws of physical science, through medium of written 

language into the unconscious observational capacity of the human beings who have the 

curiosity, ability and passion to review their world which is then compared, contrasted, and 

brought to bear in the decision making of the daily lives of these same persons.  The goal being: 

to bring forth the reason and equality which literature, education, and personal strength allow 

man to go forward on this line of time at this age in the vast history of our beginnings.

It is unfortunate that it is a fact that there were slaves and persons who were bought and 

sold, oppresses, and kept purposely supplanted to a level and reason of thinking which not only 

affected the many who directly had suffered under the unforetold anguish, for which no person, 

who has not been a slave, will ever have the capacity to describe with any inkling of the actual 

suffering.  (Moberly 120), but nearly 200 hundred years later in the future, the seeds of the 
intentional persecution, fear of, and misunderstanding has produced, or rather not produced, 

descendants who have been able to heal fully, who will not reach their full potential, nor ever be 

able to read and understand for themselves that which is the culmination of these persons 

prehistoric identity.  For is it both the descendants of oppressor and of oppressed who bear the 

brunt and weight of past custom, mistake, or ideal.  For the man who must sit and enjoy his 

freedom of speech, while having to endure that of others which has been reduced to the vulgare 

immanis vulgae of the language which was denied to them, is not actually freedom, but slavery 

to the ideal which created ignorance in one swift synaptic chemical charge in the form of a 

decision to place other beings below himself, which can and will never be forgotten, and from 

which full convalescence may last until nature makes her decision as to the human race and the 

future which will follow.  

A literary analysis titled: Toward the North Star: Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" and the
 
Slave Narrative Tradition written by Kevin Moberly from Saint Cloud State University 

emphasizes the slavery imagery and symbolism within the story by Ms. Welty.  Trials and 

tribulation of the old Phoenix are here compared to those of slaves attempting to flee the 

oppression and lack of human decency in the most modern of the backward societies yet 

recorded (Welty 10).  The use of the hunter in the story as the cumulative evil of the Jim Crow 

era, to represent the laws of the time may not be entirely correctly inferred.  How could one put 

forth, that a man who has affectionately  helped an old lady out of a ditch where she has fallen, 

can be used to embody all that is evil and wrong in the segregated southern United States?  In 

this cited essay by Moberly it is stated in the first paragraph, that the man leveled his shotgun at 

the old woman (Moberly 107).  Another of the literary writers, supposed that the hunter 

intended the old woman hard.  Would a man have bothered with an old lady who had fallen in a 

ditch in obvious distress is there had been hatred or malicious intent in the heart of this man 

(Sykes 152)?  This however, is not the language used by Ms. Welty, who simply authors, that 

the shotgun was pointed in the direction of the old woman.  If one has hunted with a shotgun, or 

has observed the poise of hunters who hunt waterfowl, and or upland game birds, one might 

ascertain that with the types of action which are used for such hunting, that it is customary to 

carry a shotgun in the broken position, with the action being pivoted open, often not containing a 

shell until such time as prey is sighted and or heard or smelled.  Thus, the direction of the barrel 

may actually point towards the ground, in the direction of a person to whom is being spoken.  A 

woman with the vast experiences such as Phoenix might be aware of this, and take no offense, as 

The literary analysis performed by Mary Ann Dazy of the meaning and symbolism of the 

action of having a ‘nice lady’ (Welty 65) tie her shoes has much to say about the action of the 

women and about the purpose for the shoe tying in the surroundings which old Phoenix found 

herself upon entering town and tracking towards the doctor’s which was her goal.  (Dazy 92)  It 

is generally known, that women can be as much of more condescending, perverse and evil than 

any male adversary, especially toward another woman, however, the busy woman, who has her 

arms full of a day’s shopping at Christmas-time has taken the time to stop and speak with one 

who is supposedly beneath her.  The young woman, who is referred to as “missy,” helps with 

the request, during which she verbalizes the sentence “Stand still then, Grandma.”  Moberly has 

interpreted this as a derogatory and condescending comment (Moberly 122).  However, this 

woman, whom has been named “missy” was more than likely brought into the world by such a 

woman as Phoenix; was given to this “Grandma” to be cared for by parents who were not 

inclined to do as such, and was perhaps told many times, to “stand still,” while her own shoes 

were being tied.  This young miss, was reverberating what had been taught to her by such a 

woman as Phoenix.  With this declaration Phoenix had completed her journey, one of many, 

where the young woman had been dressed in the proper form to tie the shoe of a young lady such 

as Phoenix.  The segregated societies were separate, however, had obvious beneficial and 

positive influence upon one another.

Marilyn Keys, a literature professor, compares the journey of the old woman to the path 

which Jesus is to have taken as he leaves his confines to be crucified.  The Via Dolorosa, or Path 

of Pain, as it is translated, is a series of steps of stages which are listed in the bible describing this 

final journey of Jesus to his death.  Phoenix faces a number of obstacles which parallel those of 

Jesus (Keys 355).  Moberly with his essay title, perceives “A Worn Path” as a slave narrative, 

however, he fails to properly define the characteristics of the slave narrative, except for alighting 

to the fact that these narrative are episodic in nature (Moberly 110).  Besides this one single 

description, these was no further direct background his claims to the narrative thesis are muddled 

because of lack of explanation.  On the other hand, Ms. Keys provides explicit examples to 

religious stories and references such as the hill which Phoenix has to climb on her journey 

parallels the mountain were Jesus is to have been tempted by the devil (Keys 355).   The 

thorned bush which catches the old lady and will not let her pass is akin to the Christian ideals of 

thorns being attributed to the crown of thorn which Jesus is to have worn as he made his Via 

Dolorosa.  Jesus meets a woman on his journey also.  This woman who has no ties or relation 

to him, favors him a passionate thoughtless gesture of wiping his face of blood and sweat.  The 

“missy” of  “A Worn Path” performs a seemingly meaningless task for Phoenix, but which has 

profound meaning to her (Keys 355).  This positive and sacral view to the story would perhaps 

be one which will propel persons away from the continual references to the hatred and pain of 

the slavery issue.

Those who are descendants of both sides of the slavery issue which finds a “path” into 

the lives of modern man, even in this day and age should be inclined to search for the 

“paths” which lead not to the further ways of encumbrance but to those conduits which 

allow the educational hindrance to be spanned and then surmounted.  “Racial Conflict”
 
(Lister 1), as Ms. Lister in her analysis states under the heading of social context must not be an 

issue or theme is this work, as themes such as the path representing the journey of life are much 

more interesting and prevalent.  It is in a letter from the author herself, from Eudora Welty, in 

which is stated that the viewing of the diploma in the office of the doctor is the end of her 

journey.  It should be the end of the journey upon the path to mental and social convalesce from 

the century old cancer of slavery, as well as the first step to the correct school of thought, with 

education and experience combined into the key to the future.

Michael Thomas Harbuck 
Den Zwanzigste April, Zweitausendundacht
Sanford, Florida, USA

 

Works Cited

Dazy, Mary Ann. "PHOENIX JACKSON AND THE NICE LADY: a NOTE ON EUDORA WELTY's "a WORN PATH"." American Notes & Queries 17 (1979):  92-2. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. SCC Library, Sanford, FL, USA. 20 Apr. 2008. Keyword: A Worn Path. 
Keys, Marilyn. "'a WORN PATH': THE WAY OF DISPOSSESSION." 

Studies in Short Fiction 16 (1979): 354. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. SCC 

Library, Sanford, FL, USA. 20 Apr. 2008. Keyword: A Worn Path. 

http://web.ebscohost.com/lrc/detail?vid=11&hid=104&sid=7aa6147b-b91b-4b8b-a503-fe

4ebf681ce3%40sessionmgr109

Lister, Rachel. Literary Contexts in Short Stories Collections: Eudora Welty's 'a Worn Path' 
Durham, England: Great Neck, 2007. 1.  Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. SCC Library, Sanford, FL, USA. 20 Apr. 2008. Keyword: A Worn Path. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=25960129&site=lrc-live
Moberly, Kevin. "Toward the North Star: Eudora Welty's "a Worn Path" and the Slave Narrative
Tradition." Mississippi Quarterly 59 (2006):  107-127. Literary Reference Center.
 EBSCO. SCC Library, Sanford, FL. 20 Apr. 2008. Keyword: A Worn Path. 

Sykes, Dennis J. "Welty's the Worn Path.Find More Like This." Explicator 56 (98):  151. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. SCC Library, Sanford, FL, USA. 20 Apr. 2008. Keyword: A Worn Path
Annotated Bibliography

Davis, Robert G., ed. Ten Modern Masters. 3rd ed. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1953. 441.  
The publisher and editor bring together a a collection of short stories from American authors, which are discussed and reviewed literally.  The  introduction and the three stories by Eudora Welty are the focus of the research.  The comparison stories may also  play a role in the research. 

Dazy, Mary Ann. "PHOENIX JACKSON AND THE NICE LADY: a NOTE ON EUDORA WELTY's "a WORN PATH"." American Notes & Queries 17 (1979):  92-2. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. SCC Library, Sanford, FL, USA. 20 Apr. 2008. Keyword: A Worn Path. 
Analyzes the shoe tying incident in the short story, and places significance and symbolism upon it.   

Keys, Marilyn. "'a WORN PATH': THE WAY OF DISPOSSESSION." 

Studies in Short Fiction 16 (1979): 354. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. SCC 

Library, Sanford, FL, USA. 20 Apr. 2008. Keyword: A Worn Path. 

http://web.ebscohost.com/lrc/detail?vid=11&hid=104&sid=7aa6147b-b91b-4b8b-a503-fe

4ebf681ce3%40sessionmgr109

A commentary presenting heroic sacrifice.

Lister, Rachel. Literary Contexts in Short Stories Collections: Eudora Welty's 'a Worn Path' 
Durham, England: Great Neck, 2007. 1.  Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. SCC Library, Sanford, FL, USA. 20 Apr. 2008. Keyword: A Worn Path. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=25960129&site=lrc-live
This literary analysis essay puts forth the ideas and meanings of the short story from the point of view of a teacher of American Fiction in Great Britain.  Many aspects of the short story are delved into.  

Mizener, Arthur, ed. Modern Short Stories the Use of Imagination. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1966. 163--165.  
The publisher has brought together a  collection of analysis of short stories which, as the title states, uses the vast human imagination within the literary framework.  The analysis are two to three pages in length, and will be researched and compared to the other sources.   

Moberly, Kevin. "Toward the North Star: Eudora Welty's "a Worn Path" and the Slave Narrative Tradition." Mississippi Quarterly 59 (2006):  107-127. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. SCC Library, Sanford, FL. 20 Apr. 2008. Keyword: A Worn Path. 
This is a journal article and literary criticism regarding the meeting of Phoenix with the hunter, and the racial implications, et cetera

Pierpont, Claudia R. Passionate Minds. 1st ed. New York: Alfred a. Knopf, 2000.  
The Author takes twelve of the most influential and outstanding women writers of the world, and describes what they have done to change it, and how.  Eudora Welty is one of the  chosen authors, and the research on this author on and about her life and work will be used as research. 

Pinwinski, David J. "Mistletoe in Eudora Welty's "a Worn Path."" ANQ 16 (2003):  40-42. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. SCC Library, Sanford, FL, USA.  
Analyzes the symbolism of mistletoe in the short story

Isaacs, Neil D., Life for Phoenix, in Sewanee Review, Vol. LXXI, No. 1, Winter, 1963, pp. 75-81. Reprinted in Short Story Criticism, Vol. 27.  
The author of the essay used examples  from the plot of  “A Worn Path” to show the Christian background of the author, as well as Christian values within the story.  

Pierpont, Claudia R. Passionate Minds. 1st ed. New York: Alfred a. Knopf, 2000.  
The Author takes twelve of the most influential and outstanding women writers of the world, and describes what they have done to change it, and how.  Eudora Welty is one of the  chosen authors, and the research on this author on and about her life and work will be used as research. 

Sykes, Dennis J. "Welty's the Worn Path.Find More Like This." Explicator 56 (98):  151. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. SCC Library, Sanford, FL, USA. 20 Apr. 2008. Keyword: A Worn Path. 
Compares the journey of Phoenix to the exodus of ex-slaves from the lost south.