Essay - Eudora Welty's Short Story 'A Worn Path' Effectively Demonstrates the...

Eudora Welty's short story "A Worn Path" effectively demonstrates the importance of the author's point of view in creating a sense of n*****rrative tension and suspense in unfolding a tale. The ***** does not have a clearly structured, climatic plot in the classical sense ***** telling a story. The way the author selectively reveals details to the reader through the way she unfolds her narrative, however, creates a sense of dramatic structure that sustains ***** narrative.

The ***** tells the tale ***** "an old Negro woman" who is first pictured by the narra*****r as picking through the woods on a cane. The author shows the woman first, as a camera might, describing the way ***** appears on the outside, ***** gait, and what she wears. *****n the reader learns that the ***** ***** named "Old Phoenix" a name ***** indicates her resilience, her ability to be reborn under difficult circumstances. We do not know at first why she is walking, only that ***** is making her way with difficulty along the path *****cause of ***** age although at one point she comments, "I w*****n't as old as I thought." By 'overhearing' Old Phoenix's meditations to herself, the reader gains an underst*****ing of how the wom***** talks, and also how she thinks, as ***** narrator follows the main character's thought processes along the path.

***** Phoenix comes across a m*****n ***** a *****g on a ch*****in, a dog that appears quite menacing at first to ***** reader. The ***** shows us the dog at first through Old Phoenix's eyes, a ***** that ***** looks like a man, then a ghost, then ***** being that is "sitting on h***** fine tail, smiling at you," according ***** the dog's owner. But ***** Phoenix, unlike the *****, is not afraid of ***** sight of this dog, nor ***** the man's gun. The reader gains further respect for the old wo***** fortitude when ***** asks a lady with "red-, green-, and silver-wrapped presents," to lace her shoes.

***** true level of Old Phoenix's grit ***** gumpti***** is only revealed at the end ***** ***** story. At first, we are told by a nurse, Old Phoenix "doesn't come for *****," on these apparently frequent journeys of hers, only for her "little grandson." The boy needs medicine. Old ***** is so old she has forgotten what she came for until she is reminded. This is perhaps why Wetly does not reveal ***** mission at the ***** in ***** *****'s ***** ***** view, beca*****e the woman does not ***** why she is go*****g herself—she simply goes on the worn path out of habit, knowing that she is going ***** something important. The medicine in her hand gives her memory back and performs a kind ***** resurrection for Phoenix's memory as well as, hopefully, the suffering child at home's sore throat.

This provides a potent metaphor for life—all of us are ***** on a *****, sometimes uncertain of *****, ***** knowing we must keep going ***** some re********** we