The Hero In Eudora Welty's A Worn Path

523 Words3 Pages
Modern heroes today follow Joseph Campbell’s heroic archetype chart. Superman, sole survivor of the planet Krypton, is the type of hero most Americans visualize when they hear the word “hero”. When he was a baby his parents shipped him from their planet to the planet earth so he could have a better life and survive. Because he never meets his biological parents, he fits the first piece of the archetype which states that heroes are from obscure or mysterious origin. Superman wants to save the planet from evil, the protagonist in “A Worn Path” has a simple goal. Finally, Superman is able to renew himself after he makes a mistake, similarly the protagonist in Welty’s story does the same. In Eudora Welty’s “ A Worn Path”, Phoenix Jackson, a former 90 year old slave sets out on a trip in the middle of winter to obtain his medicine is considered a hero because she has set goals, mysterious origin. and she is no fool. Heros come with different qualities such as goals, obscure background and usually descend into darkness. Phoenix Jackson is introduced to the reader as “a small, slow walking, old Negro women”(47) at the…show more content…
Unlike a Superman, Phoenix must navigate this path without special powers. In fact, this elderly, impoverished woman is perhaps more heroic because she is vulnerable. However, she uses her clever intellect to navigate the trail without problems. for example, Phoenix encounters a hunter on the way. She falls in a ditch and luckily he was in the woods hunting “A white man finally came along and found her- a hunter, a young man, with his dog on a chain.”(50) As the hunter continues on the trail he drops a nickel and Phoenix quickly grabs and it and pockets it. Ms.Jackson meets a nurse and with her sweet old lady ways, the nurse give sher some money for the medicine, very slick and clever of

More about The Hero In Eudora Welty's A Worn Path

Open Document