Imagery, Symbolism and Foreshadowing in "A Worn Path"
             The short story "A Worn Path," is about an elderly black woman named Phoenix Jackson who makes a strenuous journey into town in need of medicine for her ill grandson. During her excursion she talks aloud to herself in a coaxing manner to endure the difficult trip. She has made this trip many times before, but this one seems significantly harder to manage. Because of her fearless efforts and love for her only grandson, she is successful at retrieving the medicine. Unfortunately, the author leads us to believe it may have been her last journey on the worn path into town. Author Eudora Welty uses foreshadowing, imagery, and symbolism in "A Warn Path" to depict the main character's obstacles and adversities to achieve her goal.
             The title of the short story, "A Worn Path," is foreshadowing something coming to an end. In Phoenix's case, it would be her life. The author describes Phoenix walking slowly in the dark pine shadows with a makeshift cane to aid her, indicative of her rough journey ahead. In the last statement the author uses foreshadowing to emphasize near death when describing the old ladies slow descent down the stairs.
             Eudora Welty used imagery in the story to make the reader feel as if you had met Phoenix already. Welty described her wearing "...a dark striped dress reaching down to her shoe tops, and an equally long apron of bleached sugar sacks.... skin had a pattern all its own, of numberless branching wrinkles in the middle of her forehead, but a golden color ran underneath." When Phoenix talks aloud to herself it allows the reader to imagine the warm, comical, young spirited side of her.
             The symbolism of this story jumps out at the reader beginning with the main character's name, Phoenix. The women in the story represent the myth of the Phoenix because she is descr...