A Worn Path

Study Guide

Literary Devices

Motifs

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Literary Devices Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Christianity

The most impactful motif in “A Worn Path” is the repetition of Christian imagery, lending Christian undertones to Phoenix’s journey. Phoenix is a self-sacrificing Christ figure. Her path is evocative of the path Christ walked as he carried the cross to his crucifixion. Her first obstacle, the thorns, is reminiscent of the crown of thorns placed on Jesus’s head to mock his claim that he was the Son of God. Phoenix’s fall into the ditch brings to mind the three times Jesus falls during his journey.

Other Biblical imagery is threaded through the story. Phoenix recalls a time when she encountered a two-headed snake, bringing to mind the snake that led Eve to sin. Phoenix successfully escaped the snake, just as Jesus avoided the temptation of the devil in the Garden of Gethsemane. The gesture of the woman tying Phoenix’s shoelaces is evocative of Mary Magdalene washing Jesus’s feet. What’s more, the mythological phoenix is often associated with Christ for its ability to rise from the dead, further casting Phoenix as a Christlike figure.

The Christian imagery and the evocation of Christ’s journey also aligns the white people that Phoenix encounters with the Romans who crucified Jesus. As the Romans brought unjust terror and punishment on Jesus, so do the white people in the South continually terrorize Black citizens. At the end of the story, Phoenix brings the light of hope to her little world, in the form of a paper windmill, that she gains from her significant sacrifices.

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