RUNNING head:
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Journey of Symbolism into Elements of Literature
Jessica Nelson
ENG125:
Introduction to Literature
Instructor:
Michael O’Donnell
June 17, 2013
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A symbol is something that has a literal identity but also stands for something else,
something that is widely understood and has been developed over a long period of time or by
common agreement (Clugston, 2010).
Symbolism helps to open the doors of imagination and
truly get the author’s ideas.
It opens our minds to looking outside the box.
Understanding the
author’s true symbolism of their writing is what helps the reader in relating to what they are
reading.
Eudora Welty and Jean Rhys use elements of character, conflict and setting to further
the theme symbolism of the journey in Welty’s A Worn Path and Rhys Used to Live Here Once.
In 1941 Welty wrote the short story A Worn Path it could be called a character portrait,
(Clugston, 2010).
This is a story about a woman and the path she is taking in her life.
The
journey she has taken and all of the encounters to remind her of her age.
In the beginning of the
short story it gives in detail the description of the woman and her actions.
This sparks the
reader’s imagination and forces you picture the old woman during a cold early morning in
December in the South.
Her name was Phoenix Jackson. She was very old and small and she
walked slowly in the dark pine shadows, moving a little from side to side in her steps, with the
balanced heaviness and lightness of a pendulum in a grand-father clock (Welty, 1941).
She
looked straight ahead. Her eyes were blue with age. Her skin had a pattern all its own of
numberless branching wrinkles and as though a whole little tree stood in the middle of her
forehead, but a golden color ran underneath, and the two knobs of her cheeks were illumined by
a yellow burning under the dark (Welty, 1941).
The author made sure to have a lot of detail in
the description of the woman and her setting to help the reader imagine where the story may go.
Now and then there was a quivering in the thicket. Old Phoenix said, "Out of my way, all you
foxes, owls, beetles, jack rabbits, coons and wild animals! . . . Keep out from under these feet,
little bob-whites. . . . Keep the big wild hogs out of my path. Don't let none of those come
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running my direction. I got a long way." (Welty, 1941)
The information about how she uses her
cane to scatter the small animals from her path clarifies our picture of her.
It also reveals her
character, particularly her determination (Clugston, 2010).
Her determination is the major point
of the beginning of the short story.
It shows that the woman has lead a long life with many
lessons and nothing will get in the way of her journey.
The woman’s realization of her age begins to play a major role in her journey.
She
notices how much harder it was now than it has ever been before.
As the woman moves on in
her journey the story takes quite a turn.
The path ran up a hill. "Seem like there is chains about
