EUDORA WELTY

A WORN PATH'

Wei 1. Byrne, Mary EUen. "Welty's 'A Worn Path' and Walker's'Everyday Use': Companion Pieces." Teaching English in the Two-Year College 16 (1989): 129-33.

Although "A Worn Path" and "Everyday Use" share similarities intheme, setting, and character, variances result from differences in theraces of the authors (129). Both portray main characters who are elderlyblack women, both focus on family values, and both involve journeys(129). The journey in "A Worn Path," as Welty herself has pointed out,is fundamental to the story, introduces an allegorical level, and is doneout of love (129). The journey in Walker's story, however, is undertakenby the daughter Dee for the selfish motive of acquiring family heir-looms (130). Both protagonists are associated with home. However, in"A Worn Path" the references to Phoenix as "Granny" and "Grandma"by white characters derogate her, but the frequent mention of her nameby the narrator restores her status (130). Other similarities include thefollowing: both protagonists recognize the value of an education al-though they did not receive one (130), both are marginalized by thewhite culture (131), and both stories have rural settings (131). However,in "A Worn Path" Phoenix is part of nature, whereas in "Everyday Use"the mother must exact a living from nature (131). Although the similari-ties are many, the foremost difference lies in the choice of the narrator(132). In Walker's story, the narrator is the mother, whose uneducatedvoice limits the perspective of the story (132). But in "A Worn Path," thestory is related by a third-person narrator who is able to understandmore than Phoenix, providing a distance that establishes a universal,mythical quality to the story (132). Through her choice of a third personnarrator, Welty herself understands her own distance from black expe-rience (133). FORM, MULTI

Wei 2. Donlan, Don. '"A Worn Path': Immortality of Stereotype."English Journal 62 (1973): 549-50.

Although Phoenix Jackson has been viewed by some readers as astereotype, she can instead be seen as a symbol of immortality—an in-terpretation supported by many allusions to death within the story

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(549). Phoenix undertakes her journey in winter, the season traditionallyassociated with death, and encounters dead birds and trees. Althoughshe is surrounded by death. Phoenix is alive (549). In addition, frequentmention of her old age again suggests immortality (549). Finally,Phoenix's name recalls the mythical bird that renevv s itself (549).Additional allusions to the myth are present: the colors of gold and redmentioned in an early description of Phoenix, her manner of u^alking,her retrieval of the hunter's nickel as though it were an egg, and thefrequent references to birds (550). Being aw^are of the symbolic leveladds richness to an already effective story about human experience(550). THEM, FORM

Wei 3. Gardner, Joseph H. "Errands of Love: A Study in Black andWhite." The Kentucky Review 12 (Autunm 1993): 69-78.

Phoenix's blackness, a conscious choice by Welty, is essential to thenarrative (69). Welty makes several assumptions concerning her pro-tagonist, most related to her identification of Phoenix with the universaland mythic (70). Because her journey is described as "an errand oflove," Phoenix illustrates the culture's assumption concerning thestrong maternal love of black women (71). She also exemplifies the be-lief that blacks are closer to nature than whites, a belief that suggests themyth of Rousseau's Noble Savage (71). The assumed primitiveness ofblacks allows for the justification of their exploitation, but it also canlead to the view that blacks are unsullied by civilization (71). Phoenix'slack of education is seen as positive, for it allows her to remain knowl-edgeable in folk wisdom and untarnished "by the rationalism of the Eu-ropean (i.e., white) Enlightenment" (73). Even though she desiresmedicine, a product of technology, she herself is part of "an animistic,magic realm" (73). As she journeys to town, she moves from the mythicand universal into an inferior domain where materialism and SantaClaus rule (73). When compared with Alice Walker's "Strong HorseTea," Welty's story seems based on racial stereotypes. The differencesbetween the landscapes and weather, the names of the protagonists,their relationship to animals, their physical appearance, their treatmentby whites, and the different outcomes of their journeys, all point to Wel-ty's acceptance of cultural assumptions about blacks (74-77). Walker,being black, has a more realistic view of black experience whereasWelty substitutes "mythic grandeur" for reality (78). HIST, MULTI,ARCH

Wei 4. Lewis, Thomas N. "Textual Variants in 'A Worn Path.'" Eu-dora Welty Newsletter 16 (1992): 11-13.

Although Welty made sixty-four changes between the story's firstpublication in The Atlantic Monthly and its inclusior\ in her short storycollection A Curtain of Green, their effects are "slight" (12). HIST

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Wei 5. Orr, Elaine. '''Unsettling Every Definition of Otherness':Another Reading of Eudora Welty's 'A Worn Path.'" South At-lantic Review 57 (1992): 57-72.

Although few critics have discussed the white attendant's labeling ofPhoenix as a "charity case" at the conclusion of the story, the silence itengenders in Phoenix is crucial to understanding the story (57). Thestory is more than an account of Phoenix's journey; it is also "a complexanalogy of fabulation—of invention, discovery, and subjective expan-sion" (57). The reader must solve the puzzle that is posed by Phoenix'scharacter, discarding assumptions and entering into a new awareness(57). Some passages suggest an alternative reading of Phoenix, one thatundercuts the stereotypes. The incident with the white hunter, for ex-ample, shows how Phoenix takes the man's assumptions and uses themto write her own version, redirecting his own assumptions against himand, in the process, acquiring what she wants, a nickel (58). Not accept-ing his version of herself—one that implies that she is simple-minded—she creates her own selfhood, her own subjectivity (58). The claim thatPhoenix's acquisition of the medicine for her grandson signals closurefor the story, or that the story is an example of love and selfishness, is amisreading and one that is mired in stereotypical assumptions aboutrace and gender (59). Moreover the story itself does not support such areading (59). Instead, the incident with the hunter helps explain theevents of the conclusion (60). Phoenix, through her actions, challengesthe assumptions of the attendant and nurse and of the reader as well(60). Indications that the story is not as straightforward as it appears liein the selection of the name Phoenix for the protagonist and in the manycontradictions that occur within the story (61). For example, althoughshe is described as almost blind, she spots the nickel and identifies it assuch (61). The title refers not to Phoenix's journey but to the reader'swho, in reading the story, encounters obstacles to maintaining past be-liefs (62). The first challenge comes in understanding the hunter, who,as tradition would have it, is the typical hero (62). But Phoenix under-cuts his stature: her journey is more important than his (62). Anotherchallenge comes with Phoenix's language, which is more sophisticatedthan critics and readers have assumed. She engages in word play and ina type of language called "doubletalk" in which the real meaning ishidden beneath the actual speech, a type of speech that marginalizedgroups, such as blacks and women, often employ with the dominantgroup (63). The inattentive reader can be likened to the hunter, one whomisses the meaning because he or she is unwilling to discard past as-sumptions (64). Phoenix's encounter with the nurse in town is similar toher encounter with the hunter; both view Phoenix in terms of their ownassumptions, marginalizing Phoenix (65). The hunter is blinded by hisracism and sexism, and the nurse by her racism and classism (66). Thenurse and the attendant expect Phoenix to behave humbly like "a char-

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ity case" and maternally like a grandmother (66). They attempt to de-fine her, but through her silence, she resists their definition (67). WhenPhoenix does answer, she parodies their expectations, acting the role ofthe humble black woman (68). And the reader who has accepted the ac-quisition of the medicine as the reason for her journey is also being par-odied (68). Emphasizing her control over her own selfhood. Phoenixmanipulates the woman into giving her a nickel (69). Phoenix, like themythic bird, creates herself (68). She questions the dominant culture'sbeliefs about women and blacks (69). Welty, in her story, undercuts theassumptions that keep marginal groups subordinate (70). THEM,MULTI, READ-R

Wei 6. Phillips, Robert L., Jr. "A Structural Approach to Myth inthe Fiction of Eudora Welty." In Eudora Welty: Critical Essays. Ed.Peggy Whitman Prenshaw. Jackson: University Press of Missis-sippi, 1979. Pp. 56-67.

Although other critics argue that Welty begins with the myth andthen grafts it on to a Mississippi setting, Welty starts with Mississippiand sees in it a mythic dimension (56). Welty discovers in her charactersfrom Mississippi a universal quality (57) that has its roots in fantasy andmyth (58). Welty typically uses myth in three different ways (58). In thefirst way, references and allusions are made to myths, but the charactersthemselves are unaware of the added dimension (59). "A Worn Path"falls into this category (60). The story began not with the Phoenix mythbut with Welty's sighting one wintry day an old woman walking in thedistance (60). To that image Welty added a narrative line and referencesto myths and legends (60). Allusions to Phoenix, the bird that renews it-self, abound, but also, as other critics have pointed out, there are echoesof the myths of Aeneas, Persephone, Demeter, and Adonis among oth-ers (60). The protagonist. Phoenix, is not aware of the parallels, but thereader is, and this awareness adds another dimension to the story (60).Welty also utilizes myth so that reality itself seems to be questioned(61). In this second way, myths and legends figure predomir\antly in astory (61) which is set in "a symbolic, even allegorical, landscape full ofmythical men and strange beasts" (63). Still, however, the characters areunaware of the added mythic dimension (64). But in the third way thatWelty uses myth, the characters understand their part in the mythictradition (64), recognizing their place in the history of myth (67). Thereader, in order to understand Welty's fiction to the fullest, must becognizant of the mythic level (67). ARCH

Wei 7. Porter, Katherine Anne. "Introduction." A Curtain of Greenand Other Stories by Eudora Welty. 1941. New York: Harcourt,Brace and World, 1970. Pp. xi-xxiii.

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Reminiscences about meeting the young Eudora Welty (xi) precedediscussion of Welty's family and education and her beginnings as awriter (xii-xiv). Welty did not study creative writing in college butcame by it naturally (xv). Welty shows a lack of interest in political sys-tems (which often negate the individualistic impulse) and she also ad-heres to a strong moral code (xvi). Some of the stories contained in thevolume "offer an extraordinary range of mood, pace, tone, and varietyof material" (xix). "A Worn Path" contains a mixture of dream and re-ality (xxi). Even though Welty's writing style is straightforward, herthemes are complex (xxiii). HIST, FORM, THEM

Wei 8. Robinson, David. "A Nickel and Dime Matter: TeachingEudora Welty's 'A Worn Pa th /" Notes on Mississippi Writers 19(1987): 23-27.

The passage in which Phoenix encounters the white hunter, sees himdrop a nickel, and distracts him in order that she might pick up thenickel is open to several interpretations (24). For example, either thehunter knows he dropped the nickel, or he realizes it only when he seesher pick it up, or he never knows (25). The most plausible reading is thelast. The hunter stereotypes Phoenix and patronizes her, never realizingthat his attitude enables Phoenix to profit (26). But because of thehunter's attitude, the reader excuses Phoenix's theft of the nickel. Weltyis providing a comment on racism (26). THEM

Wei 9. Saunders, James Robert. "'A Worn Path': The Eternal Questof Welty's Phoenix Jackson." The Southern Literary Journal 25(1992): 62-73.

"A Worn Path" has occasioned various interpretations, having beenseen, for instance, as a religious quest or as an examination of the dete-rioration of the protagonist Phoenix as she wrests with senility and on-coming death (62-63). Phoenix, however, shares a universal qualitywith Dilsey of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury (65) and with Vyry inMargaret Walker's Jubilee (66). Contributing to her universality are sev-eral traits. The first is her oneness with nature, which is implied by thefact that the elements assist her in her journey: the thorny bush does"not harm the garments of an essential sister," and the dead trees saluteher (67). Second is her overwhelming love: she "is the designated pro-tector of another worthy innocent" (69). The third is her perseverance(71). THEM

Wei 10. Walter, James. "Love's Habit of Vision in Welty's PhoenixJackson." Journal of the Short Story in English 7 (1986): 77-85.

Phoenix's love supplies the center of the story {77). Her love, based inChristianity, carries her forward as she patiently and persistently over-

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comes the obstacles she encounters along her journey (79-80). Her si-lence at the conclusion is a result of the attendant's questions, whichforce her to consider her own troubles; consequently she "withdrawsinto self-preoccupation" (82). But moments later she recovers and vowsnever to forget her grandson again (82). The reader is made to confronthis or her own assumptions. Faced with a Phoenix who seems stereo-typical, the reader misreads the story until the conclusion forces a re-evaluation (83). THEM, READ-R

Wei 11. Welty, Eudora. "Is Phoenix Jackson's Grandson ReallyDead?" The Eye of the Story: Selected Essays and Reviews. NewYork: Vintage Books, 1979. Pp. 159-62.

Eudora Welty discusses "A Worn Path" and specifically responds tothe question she is most often asked: Is the grandson alive? Answeringaffirmatively, she points out that the narrative line and the story's aes-thetics suggest his continuing existence (159-60). Welty continues herdiscussion of the story, pointing out that Phoenix's journey and her lovefor her grandson are the essential elements of the story (160) and identi-fying the catalyst as being her once viewing an old woman walking inthe distance on a wintry day (161). She concludes by suggesting that thetask of writing is similar to Phoenix's journey. In other words, writing isa struggle to arrive at meaning, a journey accomplished with the aid of"imagination ... dreams and bits of good luck" (162). HIST, THEM

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