A Worn Path

[JonC]

Revisiting a short journey with Eudora Welty.

When reading about Phoenix Jackson's trip to town I always envision a little Donald Quixote and a lot of Jason and the Argonauts.

I can think of several interpretations (and social commentaries) concerning the people Phoenix encounters. One, however, always concerned me and I cannot recall it being discussed.

What about her grandchild and his dependency on her? The medicine is there as long as she can make the journey (and as the man she meets on the road states, no person leaves except there be a personal benefit).

Anyone read the short story? If so, what do you think? What stands out?

 

[kathleenmariekg]

Sorry, I have no idea what you are talking about.

What is the title of the story? Is it free and/or in the public domain? Link please.

 

[JonC]

Sorry, I have no idea what you are talking about.

What is the title of the story? Is it free and/or in the public domain? Link please.

A Worn Path is the name of the story. I was going to revisit a Flannery O'Connor book but decided to check out a collection of stories I have not read in probably 20 years.

Here it is online:

A Worn Path

 

[kathleenmariekg]

What stands out is that no one cares if the child is safe. The child and grandmother are both very vulnerable and alone, and I guess expendable.

 

[RighteousnessTemperance&]

Revisiting a short journey with Eudora Welty.

When reading about Phoenix Jackson's trip to town I always envision a little Donald Quixote and a lot of Jason and the Argonauts.

I can think of several interpretations (and social commentaries) concerning the people Phoenix encounters. One, however, always concerned me and I cannot recall it being discussed.

What about her grandchild and his dependency on her? The medicine is there as long as she can make the journey (and as the man she meets on the road states, no person leaves except there be a personal benefit).

Anyone read the short story? If so, what do you think? What stands out?

I've read it now. To what does this refer?

She entered a door, and there she saw nailed up on the wall the document that had been stamped with the gold seal and framed in the gold frame, which matched the dream that was hung up in her head.​

 

[JonC]

I've read it now. To what does this refer?

She entered a door, and there she saw nailed up on the wall the document that had been stamped with the gold seal and framed in the gold frame, which matched the dream that was hung up in her head.​

I always connected it to religion and her journey as a pilgrimage. She makes this journey over and over again to get medicine that will never cure her grandchild. She never asks any questions, and there is a sense that her journey is to a world different from her own.

 

[RighteousnessTemperance&]

I always connected it to religion and her journey as a pilgrimage. She makes this journey over and over again to get medicine that will never cure her grandchild. She never asks any questions, and there is a sense that her journey is to a world different from her own.

OK, then what do you make of her holding up the imaginary 10-cent paper pinwheel in demonstration?

Then she gave a tap with her cane on the floor. 'This is what come to me to do,' she said. 'I going to the store and buy my child a little windmill they sells, made out of paper. He going to find it hard to believe there such a thing in the world. I'll march myself back where he waiting, holding it straight up in this hand.'

She lifted her free hand, gave a little nod, turned around, and walked out of the doctor's office. Then her slow step began on the stairs, going down.​

 

[kathleenmariekg]

The story reminds me of Pilgrim's Progress a bit.

 

[kathleenmariekg]

I rushed through the reading because it is behind a paywall that would have prevented me from opening the page back up once I closed it, and didn't have the option to print the article in a way that would not waste ink and paper.

I would be very interested in more discussion of literature that gives me a bit more time and ability to prepare.

 

[JonC]

OK, then what do you make of her holding up the imaginary 10-cent paper pinwheel in demonstration?

Then she gave a tap with her cane on the floor. 'This is what come to me to do,' she said. 'I going to the store and buy my child a little windmill they sells, made out of paper. He going to find it hard to believe there such a thing in the world. I'll march myself back where he waiting, holding it straight up in this hand.'

She lifted her free hand, gave a little nod, turned around, and walked out of the doctor's office. Then her slow step began on the stairs, going down.​

I don't know. What do you think?

 

[JonC]

I rushed through the reading because it is behind a paywall that would have prevented me from opening the page back up once I closed it, and didn't have the option to print the article in a way that would not waste ink and paper.

I would be very interested in more discussion of literature that gives me a bit more time and ability to prepare.

It'd be nice to have a literature discussion forum on the board.

I deleted my facebook account and to occupy my otherwise wasted time I'm revisiting a few books. I can read books (good books) again several times.

If you liked Welty, you may enjoy Flannery O'Connor. One of my favorite stories she wrote is Revelation (I think it's in Everything that Rises Must Converge).

 

[kathleenmariekg]

I often have more access to books than articles that are behind paywalls. I am still classified a "student" with a "print disability". Flannery stuff should be easy to get.

 

[Rob_BW]

It'd be nice to have a literature discussion forum on the board.

I deleted my facebook account and to occupy my otherwise wasted time I'm revisiting a few books. I can read books (good books) again several times.

If you liked Welty, you may enjoy Flannery O'Connor. One of my favorite stories she wrote is Revelation (I think it's in Everything that Rises Must Converge).

Oh, it's been too long since I've read any Flannery. A captain, who was an English teacher, shared his copy with me in 2004, when good books were hard to come by. He saw me reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and was slightly amazed that people still read it.

I have Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy on the way now from Abe Books (~15 bucks for 3 hardcovers!), so my fiction needs will be met for the time being. Count me in on any Literature Discussion thread

 

[Rob_BW]

I often have more access to books than articles that are behind paywalls. I am still classified a "student" with a "print disability". Flannery stuff should be easy to get.

6 bucks or so for a delivered, used copy of her Complete Stories. I should pick one up.

 

[kathleenmariekg]

Yup, I have a few good sources for used books, but I have to be careful even for that right now. Even that little stuff adds up on an income as small as mine. I need to save the used book sources for what needs to be in hardcopy or cannot be obtained online. I think I do this mostly with ebooks and occasionally printing a short story.

I just got a couple used Bible reference books delivered this morning that I got an amazing deal on when bought in bulk. I do a lot of crying, but my life is such a mixture of gratitude and watching people around me suffer. For all the crying, I seldom cry in pity for myself. I am so blessed. This morning, these books made me cry: the good kind of crying. The mail women even special delivered them to me, because she cannot deliver regular mail to my neighborhood today. We go days without mail here, and they come when they can come. She came special for me. I am blessed, so blessed.

 

[RighteousnessTemperance&]

I don't know. What do you think?

I don’t know either, and don’t claim to be good at this sort of thing, and it’s fiction after all.

The picture I have is one of liberty, with money or means a prime objective. Phoenix is near blind but can spot money like a hawk, and doesn’t mind asking, not that she isn’t owed. She was born a slave after all, but missed out on any schooling. And gold is on her mind. The hunter’s giving comment absolves her of “stealing” the nickel. The spiral staircase she takes reminds me of the one in the statue. Perhaps she’s one of Welty’s true Americans—Tired, Poor, but Hungry for Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Her dream is fulfillment of the latter.

 

[RighteousnessTemperance&]

I don’t know either, and don’t claim to be good at this sort of thing, and it’s fiction after all.

The picture I have is one of liberty, with money or means a prime objective. Phoenix is near blind but can spot money like a hawk, and doesn’t mind asking, not that she isn’t owed. She was born a slave after all, but missed out on any schooling. And gold is on her mind. The hunter’s giving comment absolves her of “stealing” the nickel. The spiral staircase she takes reminds me of the one in the statue. Perhaps she’s one of Welty’s true Americans—Tired, Poor, but Hungry for Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Her dream is fulfillment of the latter.

Someone else can surely formulate this part much better also. She keeps rising to the occasion like the mythical phoenix, but no charity "medicine" she seeks from those already there and so unlike her, and who hardly like her, will heal from the “lye” that’s been swallowed. So, down she goes.

But what to do with those dragging shoelaces? Oh, and as they say, Merry Christmas.

 

[RighteousnessTemperance&]

I rushed through the reading because it is behind a paywall that would have prevented me from opening the page back up once I closed it, and didn't have the option to print the article in a way that would not waste ink and paper.

I would be very interested in more discussion of literature that gives me a bit more time and ability to prepare.

Copy & Paste to a file, but you didn't hear that from me.
Here are a couple of other options. PDF even.

http://www.bccu2.org/uploads/7/1/5/3/71536593/copy_of_welty_text.pdf

Eudora Welty, A Worn Path.pdf

 

[kathleenmariekg]

Copy & Paste to a file, but you didn't hear that from me.
Here are a couple of other options. PDF even.

http://www.bccu2.org/uploads/7/1/5/3/71536593/copy_of_welty_text.pdf

Eudora Welty, A Worn Path.pdf

Thanks so much!!! I will read this better now!

 

[RighteousnessTemperance&]

I don’t know either, and don’t claim to be good at this sort of thing, and it’s fiction after all.

The picture I have is one of liberty, with money or means a prime objective. Phoenix is near blind but can spot money like a hawk, and doesn’t mind asking, not that she isn’t owed. She was born a slave after all, but missed out on any schooling. And gold is on her mind. The hunter’s giving comment absolves her of “stealing” the nickel. The spiral staircase she takes reminds me of the one in the statue. Perhaps she’s one of Welty’s true Americans—Tired, Poor, but Hungry for Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Her dream is fulfillment of the latter.

I'm amending this to say Welty's Phoenix evidently represents Lady Liberty herself with allusions to the Statue of Liberty and to the "Mercury" dime, aka Winged Liberty Head dime, the one minted at that time, which depicts a young Liberty. I've already mentioned a couple of allusions, but there is her glowing face, and the coppery scent of her hair.

I'll have to leave the details of Liberty's "Worn Path" for others to elucidate. As I said, I'm not so good at this sort of thing.