A Worn Path: Analysis of Main Idea

Overcoming obstacles requires grit and cunning.

Welty’s story explores the idea that grit and cunning help people overcome even seemingly insurmountable obstacles. From the beginning of the story, the difficulty of Phoenix’s journey is apparent. She is moving slowly along her path, with a balance of heaviness and lightness in her steps that suggest a concentrated effort. She is also feeling her way along the path with her cane. Welty describes the sound of this movement as “grave and persistent,” which emphasizes the grave stakes of Phoenix’s journey (she must make it for her grandson to survive) and the persistence it takes for Phoenix to make the journey again and again.

Welty’s description of Phoenix also emphasizes the duality between all that’s stacked against her and the grit required of her to overcome tough odds. Phoenix’s single-minded focus is suggested by the fact that she looks straight ahead. However, the description of her eyes being blue with age suggests that vision problems contribute to the difficulty of her trip.

The first obstacle that stops Phoenix in her path is the thorny bush. It not only physically hinders her but also brings the reality of Phoenix’s poverty to the foreground: she cannot afford to tear her dress. Patiently and with frustrated effort, Phoenix untangles her dress from the thorny bush without tearing it.

Another obstacle that Phoenix faces is the fact that she drifts in and out of shared reality. When she sits next to the creek, she has her first dream that a boy is bringing her slice of marble-cake. She goes so far as to reach for the cake and must, with effort, shake herself free from the revery and reset her sights on the task at hand. This happens two more times in the story and each time, Phoenix possesses the strength of mind to remember her purpose and continue her journey.

The Deep South is haunted by racism and the ghosts of slavery.

The story is filled with images of the South’s racist past and the ghosts of slavery. When Phoenix steps into the clearing after crawling on her hands and knees through the barbed wire, the dead trees look to her like Black men with one arm. This image, paired with a menacing buzzard, brings to mind the death and violence enacted on Black people throughout Mississippi’s history. The fact that Phoenix sees Black men in the trees is evocative specifically of the South’s history of lynching Black men and adds to a sense that the ground she walks is haunted by a terrible past.

When she moves further into the corn field, she sees the black scarecrow, who she first mistakes for a Black man and then for a ghost. Given what Phoenix has seen in her lifetime, these initial visions are powerful. She has every reason to believe she is being haunted by a man dancing in a dead field where he might have been killed. She reaches inside the scarecrow and finds the coat empty. She rejoices, thankful not to be facing a Black man’s ghost or another memory of death. She commands the scarecrow to dance and in her own way dances with him, with a sense that she is shaking off the haunting of what she thought she saw, the haunting of all she’s lived through.

White kindness and white menace are both unpredictable.

There’s a sense of unease in Phoenix’s interactions with the white people she encounters in the story. The first white person she meets is the hunter. It is a brief encounter, but the longest of the story, and it is filled with abrupt changes in tenor and tone that create a sense of unpredictability. Initially, the hunter seems kind. He lifts Phoenix out of the ditch where she is stranded from the dog who rushed her, though he laughs as he does it. He makes sure that she doesn’t have any broken bones or injuries from her fall. He then asks about her journey, and though he has no understanding of her or what she needs, he says the journey is too far for Phoenix to make. Their initial interaction is marked by the hunter’s kindness, though his kindness is mixed with (and predicated upon) presumption and condescension.

When she notices the nickel fall from the man’s pocket, she uses the dog to distract him. She emphasizes that he is a “big black dog” that “ain’t scared of nobody,” and goads the hunter to “sic him.” There are racist undertones inherent in the hunter’s determination to go after the fearless black dog. Once he returns from getting rid of the dog, after Phoenix has gotten the nickel in her apron pocket, his tone changes. Though still laughing, he points the gun directly at Phoenix and asks her if the gun scares her. His kindness turns to menace without warning.

Similarly, when Phoenix meets the nurse, the nurse is initially kind, explaining Phoenix’s situation and getting her the medicine. However, she quickly grows impatient when Phoenix begins to talk about how much she loves her grandson. She is insensitive to the touching moment and becomes brusque and bureaucratic. Phoenix often finds herself at the whim of the moods of white people, none of whom consider her worthy of the respect that they would certainly show another white person, and so they don’t bother tempering their worst impulses—disdain, frustration, impatience, and even violence.

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