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“A Worn Path” was written in 1941 and takes place during that time period in Mississippi. In the 1940s, the American Deep South was under the regulation of Jim Crow laws, which were state and local statutes that codified segregation and fostered unequal treatment of Black men and women. The character of Phoenix Jackson was born into slavery, which means that, in her lifetime, she saw the South move from slavery through Reconstruction. The ghosts of slavery and the racist roots of the region are palpable in the story, from the images like the scarecrow and the one-armed Black men that bring to mind lynchings to the unpredictable ways white people treat Phoenix. These images emphasize that though she is free from slavery, she is still in many ways subject to the careless whims of white people. The history that Phoenix herself has witnessed contributes to the overall haunting atmosphere. She holds steady when the white hunter points his gun at her, telling him she has seen many guns go off in her lifetime, closer to her, and for less of a reason than stealing a nickel. Though Phoenix leaves with her life because the hunter decided it would be so, this scene suggests a horrifying history of white terrorism and violence lives on in Phoenix’s memories, and in the past of the land she walks.

Previous section Eudora Welty and "A Worn Path" in Context

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