¶ … Welty's story is the suaveness of an elderly woman. Often stereotyped as helpless, foolish, or dim-witted, the woman in Welty's tale makes us look beyond stereotypes to see the person underneath. The topic of this essay, therefore, is that externals -- in this case, elderliness -- can be misleading. People should learn to look beyond in order not to fall into the error of stereotyping.
The story starts off by describing the woman's plodding style, reminiscent of a religious pilgrimage (Saunders, 1992). We are brought into our customary ways of feeling impatience for the woman and of viewing her as someone who needs our help rather than as someone who can help herself. Welty, therefore, deliberately prolongs and elaborates on the description using character and setting as aids (Clugston, 2010; Pollack, 1997) to portray the woman.
Use of character for instance includes the following:
She wore a dark striped dress reaching down to her shoe tops, and an equally long apron of bleached sugar sacks, with a full pocket: all neat and tidy, but every time she took a step she might have fallen over her shoelaces, which dragged from her unlaced shoes. (Langston 2010)
Setting, meanwhile, can be seen not only from the environment itself that matches old age:
The woods were deep...
Worn Path by Eudora Welty "A Worn Path" is recognized as one of Welty's most illustrious and often studied works of what is considered to be short fiction. Illusorily simple in scope and tone and, the story is made to be very structured upon a journey theme that joins a rich worth of figurative significance. As stated by Alfred Appel, "A Worn Path' goes way beyond its decentralization for the reason
Short stories are poignant pieces of literature, as pithy and powerful as poetry but in a more straightforward and relatable package. Like poetry, a short story relies on literary devices like symbolism and imagery, characterization and setting, to convey the author’s themes. Also like poetry, the short story reflects the cultural and historical context in which it was written. While the canon of American literature is rich with examples of
Social Economic Status and Healthcare through the Lens of Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path”: The Impact it has on the U.S. Healthcare System Introduction The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion has shown that in order to promote health in communities access to care is absolutely necessary. And yet even today in the 21st century, access to healthcare remains a big problem for people of low socio-economic status. The Affordable Care
She does not seem to mind the cold, as she considers it to be effective in the thought that it prevents wild animals from leaving their shelter. Phoenix interacts with several white people in her expedition, and, while most of them treat her with disrespect, others actually understand her problem and help her in solving it. The hunter, the lady on the street and the receptionist express their racism through
With a cane, she is able to make a long walk from her home to the hospital, and only needs someone to tie her shoe because she cannot, because she is using a cane. The tale is set in winter, in the South, after the Civil War. The lack of respect shown towards the poor woman who has walked so far may have a great deal to do with her
Phoenix is however closer to a saint in her dedication to a cause, while Calixta is a human being who abandons herself at some point to the voice of desire and allows a few moments of surrender to the carnal pleasure that takes hold, regardless of her and her accidental companion's marital status. Welty's story is full of imagery, thorny bushes come to life and grab old Phoenix' dress, she
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