What is the major theme of the worn path?

The main themes in “A Worn Path” are racism and duty versus love. Racism: The other characters look down on Phoenix due to her age, race, and class, demonstrating their own cruelty and intolerance.

What does Phoenix Jackson love?

Phoenix’s love is not just one of loyalty or obligation—she endures the journey not just to keep her grandson alive and comfortable. Her love is more profound—she endures the journey to give her grandson a sense of what’s possible in the world, to give him hope.

What is the irony in A Worn Path?

The overarching irony “A Worn Path” is the allusion to mythic quests and heroism in the story of a simple, uneducated, old black woman just walking to get her grandson’s medicine. Undercutting the irony is the story’s sincere affirmation that anyone can be a hero in the right circumstances.

What are the main themes of a worn path?

T he main themes in “A Worn Path” are racism and duty versus love. Racism: The other characters look down on Phoenix due to her age, race, and class, demonstrating their own cruelty and intolerance. Duty versus love: Phoenix’s love for her grandson compels her to make the arduous journey into town in order to get his medicine.

Who is the Phoenix in a worn path?

The phoenix was the bird in ancient mythology that rose from its own ashes every 500 years to begin a new life cycle. Phoenix Jackson, whose statement that she was “too old at the Surrender” to go to school—1865—hints that she is probably over eighty at the time the story takes place, but she refuses to die or give up.

Who is the narrator in a worn path essay?

The story is narrated by a third-person omniscient narrator who is responsible for the adoption of the sardonic tone that is taken throughout the story.

Why is tone important in a worn path?

The tone that Welty adopts as the narrator thus enables the effective narration of the story and its events. The narrator’s account of events does not give a lot of significance to the actions of the hunter and this results in the undermining of the stature that the hunter assigns to himself.