“A Worn Path” written by Eudora Welty is a short story which is full of symbolism. It is possible to find a variety of symbols concerning most important issues. This is a story about love and devotion, about aging and illnesses, and it is a story about racial discrimination in the USA in the 1930s. Each of the topics highlighted are worth volumes. In this paper, I will focus on racial discrimination in the US society of 1930s.
It is possible to find a variety of symbols which stand for racial discrimination. Some of these symbols are the path itself, the absence of support and the hunter. Admittedly, these are only a few symbols. For instance, the name of the main character is also a suggestive symbol of hope. However, the symbols mentioned above are more comprehensive as I believe each of these symbols represents a facet of African Americans’ life in the USA.
One of the first symbols to be discussed is, of course, the “worn path” (Welty n.p.). The path African Americans had to walk was a really “long way” which was also very difficult (Welty n.p.).
The path was full of dangers and “trials” like thorns which were doing their “appointed work” and “never” wanted “to let folk pass” (Welty n.p.). Of course, the ‘thorny bushes’ were all over African Americans’ way. The word ‘worn’ is also very suggestive. Thousands and millions of African Americans had to make the same journey and endure the same ‘worn’ obstacles.
To make the matters worse, the woman is all alone on the dangerous road, just like African Americans did not have anyone to support them. Thus, the old woman falls and she is unable to stand up, she sees someone and reaches her hands but “nothing reached down and gave her a pull” (Welty n.p.).
Likewise, African Americans had to face lots of constraints and there were few people who were ready to help. In the 1930s, African Americans were discriminated in all spheres of their lives and it was uncommon for a white person to help an African American. Notably, even those attempts made were rather ineffective, as any advance or help was followed by even more horrible conditions. Thus, the fact that the woman has the hallucination stands for the futility of some attempts to help African Americans in the 1930s.
Finally, the conversation between the woman and the hunter is also very symbolic. The man helps the old woman stand up, but, at the same time, he is rather disrespectful and he teases the woman with his gun. In a single phrase, the woman reveals the sufferings of slaves, “I seen plenty go off closer by, in my day, and for less than what I done” (Welty n.p.).
The slaves were treated like undeserving creatures and were punished even without a reason. Unfortunately, little changed in the 1930s and African Americans were tortured and humiliated. The entire conversation is the symbolic representation of the roles available for whites and African Americans in 1930s. The whites were still ‘patronizing’ African Americans who were regarded as inferior.
On balance, it is possible to state that the short story is a symbolic representation of the life of African Americans in the 1930s. The old woman’s path stands for the long journey African Americans had to endure to have the life they had in the 1930s. Such symbols as the path, the woman’s hallucinations and the conversation between the man and the old woman reveal the inequality in the USA in the 1930s.
Works Cited
Welty, Eudora. A Worn Path. 2001. Web.