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"She carried a thin, small cane made from an umbrella, and with this, she kept tapping the frozen earth in front of her. This made a grave and persistent noise in the still air, that seemed meditative like the chirping of a solitary little bird."

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Zeke S.-

This passage mirrors the endurance and determination seen in the man's expression and posture. Just as Phoenix Jackson perseveres through her journey, this man’s stance suggests a life of labor, hardship, and perseverance. Welty’s photography, like her writing, captures “the real” while also encouraging us to look beyond—to consider the untold struggles, the history etched in a person’s face, and the quiet dignity of resilience.

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Cristian Solorio -

"Pheonix Jackson saw on her journey. "

‘You scarecrow,’ she said. Her face lighted. ‘I ought to be shut up for good,’ she said with laughter. ‘My senses is gone. I too old. I the oldest people I ever know. Dance, old scarecrow,’ she said, ‘while I dancing with you.’

She kicked her foot over the furrow, and with mouth drawn down shook her head once or twice in a little strutting way. Some husks blew down and whirled in streamers about her skirts."

This photo reminded me of the scarecrow found by Pheonix Jackson. At first glance it seems like just a statue but when you look deeper you can see the finer details and even create some questions. Who may it be a statue of? Why is it in a cemetery? Why is it posed like that? Upon inspection you can see that it seems to be a statue of a woman in a dress posed as if it is getting its picture taken. It might give some a creepy vibe but it could possibly be a way to protect or comfort those who lie in the cemetery and those who visit them. This is not unlike the scarecrow who Pheonix first thinks is a ghost but soon realizes it is just a scarecrow. Once she realizes the truth she dances with it, finding joy and life in what she initially found scary. Eudora Welty helps the reader find life and happiness around us despite the gloomy landscape we may see.

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"The path ran up a hill. ‘Seem like there is chains about my feet, time I get this far,’ she said, in the voice of argument old people keep to use with themselves. ‘Something always take a hold of me on this hill — pleads I should stay.’"

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The photo I chose helps the reader visualize the reality of Phoenix Jackson’s journey and emphasizes both the physical and emotional hardships she endures. The photo also encourages the reader to see deeper into the emotions, struggles, and the resilience Phoenix carries. The hill in "A Worn Path" serves as a symbol, representing not just the obstacles she faces in this moment, but the struggles she has faced throughout her life.

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Passage: She wore a dark striped dress reaching down to her shoe tops, and an equally long apron of bleached sugar sacks, with a full pocket: all neat and tidy, but every time she took a step she might have fallen over her shoelaces, which dragged from her unlaced shoes. 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. Under the red rag her hair came down on her neck in the frailest of ringlets, still black, and with an odor like copper.

This photo shows what I Welty might want to portray PJ like. She seems worn on the outside, old and damaged, but on the inside she is very strong and tough. There is character behind the photo, and shows how she is filled with unending life and determination despite being a little ragged and dirty on the outside.

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I chose this image because it is exactly what I expect the woods to look like. I specifically think that the worn path is made of dirt instead of stone and full of bushes and shrubbery, enough to where hunters would be expected to be.

Passage:

"On she went. The woods were deep and still. The sun made the pine needles almost too bright to look at, up where the wind rocked. The cones dropped as light as feathers. Down in the hollow was the mourning dove — it was not too late for him."

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"She walked on. The shadows hung from the oak trees to the road like curtains. Then she smelled wood smoke, and smelled the river, and she saw a steeple and the cabins on their steep steps. Dozens of little black children whirled around her. There ahead was Natchez shining. Bells were ringing. She walked on."

Eudora Welty uses vivid imagery to depict each scene. In this passage, she describes Pheonix walking through a town where children are dancing through the streets and the whole town has seemingly been lit by Christmas lights. While reading you sort of gain this sense that Pheonix doesn't quite fit in. She must stop and ask a passerby to tie her shoe for her. The way Welty writes makes us relate to the story even more, bringing in the aspect of the "real." Much like modern-day street photography, there's a breath of life in each of her photos, a raw sort of "realness" ingrained within the subject of every photo.

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In a ravine she went where a spring was, silently flowing through a hollowed log. Old Phoenix bent and drank. ‘Sweet gum makes the water sweet,’ she said, and drank more. ‘Nobody know who made this well, for it was here when I was born.’

The track crossed a swampy part where the moss hung as white as lace from every limb. ‘Sleep on, alligators, and blow your bubbles.’ Then the cypress trees went into the road. Deep, deep it went down between the high, green-colored banks. Overhead the live oaks met, and it was as dark as a cave.

This picture accurately depicts Welty's ability to show the real in her fiction. Although there are missing elements between the two, there are similarities when talking about the spring. The winding river in the image and trees on the banks mirror the journey Phoenix took through the ravine, along the green-colored banks. The passage’s sensory details, water flowing silently, the taste of sweet gum, the sight of moss draping the trees, immerse the reader into Phoenix’s world. This allows the reader to move throughout Welty's story and pictures.

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Moving slowly and from side to side, she went into the big building, and into a tower of steps, where she walked up and around and around until her feet knew to stop.

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.

This passage makes me imagine a building similar to this image. This is a building that seems to be a treatment center/ hospital. I imagine that she was thinking about the hospital in which she got the medicine while taking this picture. When she was taking this picture, she was most likely imagining phoenix coming to life, like when phoenix is slowly moving up the steps and enters the door.

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"She walked slowly in the dark pine shadows, moving a little from side to side with the balanced heaviness and lightness of a pendulum in a grandfather clock."

This passage mirrors the photographs natural stillness and human persistance. Boh the photograph and the text allow the reader to understand the "real" as a physical item/place and a symbolic meaning. In the context of this picture the physical real is the long and hard distance that was traveled by Phoenix. In a symbolic context the real is the persistence of people who keeping on persisting even when the task at hand is hard.

The reality being captured by the image is that of stillness and human progress. The trees by themselves symbolize the hard journey and time it takes to move forward. The city in the background can symbolize the idea of making progress and getting closer to reaching or achieving a goal.

Readers can see around the real because they can infer things that may not have been said explicitly before. They can understand Phoenix's resilience and commitment to her task. They can see through the real by looking at the actual landscape and understanding what is physically and explicitly present.

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This photo taken by Eudora Welty shows how she views people. She was a White woman from Mississippi in the 1900s, yet she viewed everyone with equality. She took pictures of many people, from different backgrounds, but one thing about her pictures is that they are real. Raw and unfiltered, real people in real situations. Her writing is very similar to this. "A Worn Path" is a fictional story, yet is is very real. It is about a woman that very well could have existed, and may have in many people. That and, it from the perspective of a Black woman, and was published in 1941. This was weird for the time, when there was so much hatred toward people of African descent. Eudora Welty reflects equality through her writing as well as her photography

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‘I bound to go on my way, mister,’ said Phoenix. She inclined her head in the red rag. Then they went in different directions, but she could hear the gun shooting again and again over the hill.

She walked on. The shadows hung from the oak trees to the road like curtains. Then she smelled wood smoke, and smelled the river, and she saw a steeple and the cabins on their steep steps.

This picture depicts the environment around Phoenix. The way Welty describes the setting in "A Worn Path"—the shadows hanging like curtains, the smell of wood smoke, and the distant sound of gunfire—creates an uneasy mood that is captured in this photograph. The image of a woman standing amidst an overgrown garden, with a modest house behind her, shows the same struggles that Phoenix endures throughout her journey through the forest and town. Just as Phoenix treads through the worn and weary landscape surrounding her, the woman in this image stands in between an environment that could be seen as dull. Welty is able to capture the reader into her story while also connecting Phoenix Jackson to the real.

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"‘I bound to go on my way, mister,’ said Phoenix. She inclined her head in the red rag. Then they went in different directions, but she could hear the gun shooting again and again over the hill.

She walked on. The shadows hung from the oak trees to the road like curtains. Then she smelled wood smoke, and smelled the river, and she saw a steeple and the cabins on their steep steps." The attached picture especially accentuates the description of the environment around Phoenix. The diction regarding how the different senses are described makes an uneasy mood, furthermore highlighting Phoenix's perseverance despite the gloomy landscape encapsulating her as she trudges on with only the goal of finding medicine for her grandson. This photo also resembles the title "worn path" that she continuously walks on-it is a path that only the determined can cross fully and Phoenix is an individual who can withstand all the struggles of the path. Welty's photograph of this house in the woods takes an implicit note of how dull pictures of a gloomy-looking house in the woods could tell a story, connecting the real to the fiction of "A Worn Path."

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The photo above is titled "Untitled. Ellen of Cindy's Band.", taken sometime in the 1930s. This image mirrored Phoenix from "A Worn Path" very closely. The real of this image is of an African American woman, presumably an old one, that seems to be carrying things in her apron, and seems to be pretty tired and labored from the work. However, instead of just reflecting this surface level reality of tiredness and hard work, Welty explores the idea of real through her vivid descriptions of Phoenix and how she is portrayed. Some examples of how Welty characterizes Phoenix to help explore the real is her introduction, where Welty writes, "It was December—a bright frozen day in the early morning. Far out in the country there was an old Negro woman with her head tied in a red rag, coming along a path through the pinewoods." Along with this, Welty delves into the struggle that Phoenix faces through personal dialogue, where Phoenix says, "‘Seem like there is chains about my feet, time I get this far,’ she said, in the voice of argument old people keep to use with themselves. ‘Something always take a hold of me on this hill—pleads I should stay.’" Rather than just exposing the audience to the real like in photography, Welty takes the reader through the ins and outs of Phoenix's reality, showing how her struggle is persistent yet her determination keeps her moving forward, something evident in the photo as well.

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"Far out in the country there was an old Negro women with her head tied in a red rag. An equally long apron of bleached sugar sacks, with a full pocket. but a golden color ran underneath, and the two knobs of her cheeks were illumined by a yellow burning under the dark." These quotes from the passage relate to the photo showing her physical features. In the picture above you can see a poverty stricken individual, sitting on some wood planks. She is wearing a rag tied to the back of her head, and an apron. Similarities to the quotes and the picture is that the lady in the picture is black, wears a rag, an apron, and has the same facial structure. In "A Worn Path" it is also hinted that the Phoenix is poor, which we can also assume of the women in this picture. Even thought this women isn't old or specifically wearing a red rag, we can conclude that Eudora Welly may have based Phoenix on this type of working class women, demonstrated in the photo. It is also shown through many of her photographs that many other women wear the same clothes. This helps bring Phoenix to life, since we can already see that she is based off of other black women during this time. The author extends the idea of "the real" by taking a whole paragraph to describe her character's physical features. With these descriptions like, "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." Tells the reader more about how much the character had to endure and their emotions. Subtle details like these are only what can be captured when examining a person's face. It is said you can see someone's whole life story just by their face, showing how much Eudora Welly has studied and based Phoenix off these struggling women.

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"She followed the track, swaying through the quiet bare fields, through the little strings of trees silver in their dead leaves, past cabins silver from weather, with the doors and windows boarded shut, all like old women under a spell sitting there." In the passage, Welty is describing her view as she walks through the path. She mentions that she sees "dead leaves" and "cabins silver...". The picture she is painting is very ominous and dark. This photo that she captured demonstrates that through the dead trees in the background and the abandoned houses. Welty extends the photo through her words by describing the trees as "strings" and the cabins as "silver". Instead of just seeing a dead tree, the reader now might see wisps of the tree branches fading away. They might also start seeing how the buildings look like they are in bad shape. She also helps the readers see around the real by adding in comparisons of "old women". This addition sparks the readers imaginations as they will bring her story to life in their mind. Old women are not actually inside the building in the photo, but in the story, they may be. Overall, the writer's job is to bring out the details that the reader cannot just see from looking at the photo. The writer creates a story behind it and adds new components that the reader did not know of.

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Passage:

"On she went. The woods were deep and still. The sun made the pine needles almost too bright to look at, up where the wind rocked. The cones dropped as light as feathers. Down in the hollow was the mourning dove — it was not too late for him."

I believe that this photograph by Eudora Welty as it shows it symbolizes a strong, determined women moving through this challenging world. In the story, Phoenix Jackson walks a long and difficult path to get the medicine for her grandson. She faces multiple obstacles some natural and some including the hunter who was looking down on her, however she did not give up. The women in the image is also moving through a similar natural landscape, it looks like she is working in a field. Her posture and expression that was captured in the image suggests patience, hard work, and endurance, similar to Phoenix in the story. A writer's job extends "the real" by showing not just what is visible, a women in a field, but what exists beyond the image, the persistence and determination that these women embodied.

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Eudora Welty’s photograph is more than just a simple landscape. This picture tells a story of endurance, much like Phoenix Jackson’s journey in A Worn Path. The old worn dirt path in the picture with the presence of the bare trees has a feeling of nostalgia. Like it has carried the footsteps of many before her and has been there for a very long time. The trees, stripped of their leaves, stand tall and preserved even in dark times, much like Phoenix herself. Who is very aged, weathered, yet unbroken. In the passage, “ Her eyes were blue with age. Her skin had a pattern all its own of numberless branching wrinkles...” (Welty). This resembles the twisted trees that have withstood years of hardship, making them bare and lonely. The rough, uneven ground directly related to the struggles she faces. She had to navigate creeks, barbed wire, and people who overlooked her worth. In the distance, faint buildings come into view, much like the town in the story, a place that “'Why, that’s too far!'” (Welty), emphasizing how the things we need most often feel just beyond reach, like companionship. Yet, Phoenix keeps going, not for herself, but for her grandson, who depends on her. Her journey is one of quiet strength as she continues to push forward for the desire of love. Just as Welty’s photograph makes us want to look past the dead trees and realize that there is always a reason for this perseverance.

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‘On your way home?’

‘No sir, I going to town.’

‘Why, that’s too far! That’s as far as I walk when I come out myself, and I get something for my trouble.’ He patted the stuffed bag he carried, and there hung down a little closed claw. It was one of the bobwhites, with its beak hooked bitterly to show it was dead. ‘Now you go on home, Granny!’

‘I bound to go to town, mister,’ said Phoenix. ‘The time come around.’

He gave another laugh, filling the whole landscape. ‘I know you old colored people! Wouldn’t miss going to town to see Santa Claus!’"

The photo reminds me of the passage above because it shows where the hunter finds the woman walking into the town. In this picture, a person is walking on a dirt road.

The passage describes the conversation between the hunter and the woman (Phoenix Jackson). He explains, "‘Why, that’s too far! That’s as far as I walk when I come out myself. ‘" He thinks that she is "an old-colored woman" out for a casual walk to see something like Santa Claus. He is worried about the woman and how she cannot walk that far in the winter. Phoenix Jackson ignores them and keeps walking into the town.

Although the picture above doesn't show the hunter, it still reminds me of the time Phoenix refused to stop and kept going to town for the medicine she needed. Her determination is not taken away by the hunter’s concern for her well-being. She is walking for necessity.

The photograph with the woman walking down a dirt road further explains the idea of dedication and hardship. The dirt road symbolizes the worn path that Phoenix follows; this shows her life. it is full of struggle and survival.

overall, by analyzing the picture and details in the passages, they both work together to illustrate the worn path that Phoenix took, with determination and persistence, which is driven by love and duty.

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"She walked on. The shadows hung from the oak trees to the road like curtains. Then she smelled wood smoke, and smelled the river, and she saw a steeple and the cabins on their steep steps. Dozens of little black children whirled around her. There ahead was Natchez shining. Bells were ringing. She walked on." Eudora Welty wrote this in her novel and when I read this passage I imagine this is what it may have looked like for her. The name of this picture is "Untitled. Town seen from a distance." The quote I provided is describing a town she is seeing and I thought these too were similar. Another thing is that in past descriptions in the text, it describes the pathway she takes and the shadows and trees. I thought about it as if she was coming out of the path starting to enter town. Welty's descriptions were cruicial to providing visuals for the story and her photography helps aid what she could have been explaining.

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The image above reminds me of how I think Phoenix Jackson from, "A Worn Path would look." Eudora Welty writes ,"It was December — a bright frozen day in the early morning. Far out in the country there was an old Negro woman with her head tied in a red rag, coming along a path through the pinewoods. Her name was Phoenix Jackson. She was very old and small.", "She wore a dark striped dress reaching down to her shoe tops, and an equally long apron of bleached sugar sacks, with a full pocket." Accordingly, the woman in the image seems old, and has a presumably bleached apron, carrying fruits(?). The scenery surrounding the woman in the image reminds me of her connection to nature within the story. A couple quote from the text that represents this, "‘Where do you live, Granny?’ he asked, while the two dogs were growling at each other.

‘Away back yonder, sir, behind the ridge. You can’t even see it from here.’

‘On your way home?’

‘No sir, I going to town.’

‘Why, that’s too far! That’s as far as I walk when I come out myself, and I get something for my trouble.’ He patted the stuffed bag he carried, and there hung down a little closed claw. It was one of the bobwhites, with its beak hooked bitterly to show it was dead. ‘Now you go on home, Granny!’" The hunter is surprised at the length that Phoenix Jackson is willing to walk to get to town, showing her knowledge of the woods and her steadfastness in her resolve.

Containing within the photograph is a blurry, distinctive, smile. This is what I would imagine Phoenix Jackson's expression to be like. It also shows her dedication, while laboring and picking up fruits, she is able to shows signs of happiness and strength.

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The woman above resembles Phoenix from A Worn Path. The surrounding area of the women seems to be very dirty, resembling the area in which Phoenix most likely grouped up due to being a slave for the majority of her life.

Passage: "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 grandfather clock. She carried a thin, small cane made from an umbrella, and with this she kept tapping the frozen earth in front of her."

This passage highlights the physical features of Phoenix. She is very old and small much like the women in the photo, along with symbolizing Phoenix's persistence and resilience. The comparison to a pendulum suggests steady, unceasing motion, emphasizing that she keeps going no matter what. Her cane, made from an old umbrella, reflects both her resourcefulness and fragility.

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"the cypress trees went into the road. Deep, deep it went down between the high, green-colored banks. Overhead the live oaks met, and it was as dark as a cave."

The passage I chose connected to the photograph as both highlight a forest area. It also accentuates the world-building of the story. As Phoenix Jackson goes on this journey for her grandson's medicine, Welty uses descriptive language to describe the setting of the story and paints a picture with her words. She makes the world in which Phoenix Jackson exists seem believable and real. The readers are able to be fully immersed in the story. She is able to do this by connecting the world of Phoenix Jackson to real life settings like the one captured above.

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The picture below shows a woman who resembles Phoenix from A Worn Path, as they can both be described as a "very old and small" woman who looks "all neat and tidy", their skin having "a pattern all its own of numberless branching wrinkles and as though a whole little tree stood in the middle of her forehead" (Welty 2). The woman in the picture is walking outside even though it is obviously very cold outside, as shown by the trees without leaves in the background. Welty is able to capture "the real" aspect of Phoenix by taking inspiration for her character from the people she sees around her, such as this determined woman walking outside in bad conditions.

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In the image there's a woman who sits outdoors, stirring a large pot. Her surroundings are very modest, simple wooden houses and a dirt yard, suggest a rural and poor setting of her life. Her expression and body language convey perseverance and hard work, such as Phoenix Jackson in A Worn Path.

Passage:

"She carried a thin, small cane made from an umbrella, and with this she kept tapping the frozen earth in front of her. This made a grave and persistent noise in the still air that seemed meditative, like the chirping of a solitary little bird"

This passage is much like the image, as both expose the endurance of people under hard conditions. Just as Phoenix Jackson presses forward on her journey with determination, the woman in the photograph embodies resilience, probably laboring to feed herself and others. Both Welty’s writing and her photography capture not just physical reality but the deeper struggles and dignity of people often overlooked.

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This photo reminds me of how Welty described Phoenix "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 grandfather clock. She carried a thin, small cane made from an umbrella, and with this she kept tapping the frozen earth in front of her. This made a grave and persistent noise in the still air that seemed meditative, like the chirping of a solitary little bird." The man pictured here seems decently old, although not as old as Phoenix, but still old. His cane likely wasn't made out of an umbrella, nor as thin as Phoenix's, but still a cane that likely would've sounded like how she described Phoenix's canes tapping. This could've been a man in a bad situation that Phoenix was inspired from, with him being referred to as the village pet, which is quite comparable to the situation that Phoenix is in, with the hospital worker saying stuff relating to charity work when giving her medicine for her son.

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Passage:

‘No sir, I going to town.’

‘Why, that’s too far! That’s as far as I walk when I come out myself, and I get something for my trouble.’ He patted the stuffed bag he carried, and there hung down a little closed claw. It was one of the bobwhites, with its beak hooked bitterly to show it was dead. ‘Now you go on home, Granny!’

‘I bound to go to town, mister,’ said Phoenix. ‘The time come around.’

The photo shows a woman with a stained apron. She appears to be old, as some wrinkles are visible on her face. She shows a tired expression and a relaxed posture.

The passage, however, describes a conversation between Phoenix Jackson and a hunter. The hunter thinks that Phoenix is too old to be walking to town in the winter. Phoenix ignores his doubts, insisting that she must 'go to town'.

Both the passage and the picture explore a common theme of old Black women being hardworking. Though it's hard to tell for sure from just the photo, it appears by the woman's relaxed stance and facial expression that she is tired from her work. Additionally, her headwear (possibly a bonnet?) and stained apron indicates that she had been working. This picture exemplifies the hardworking trait of black women in the 1900s. It also illustrates "the real" element of A Worn Path. In the 1900s, the reality was that day-to-day life was very tough, especially for black women. They were expected to work even as they grew old. Though not directly stated, we can also see "through the real" by analyzing the passage. The passage demonstrates the persistence of Phoenix Jackson, an old black woman walking a long distance to town to get medicine for her grandson. The hunter doubts her abilities, as she's attempting to walk as far as he does. Yet, it's revealed near the end of the story that she walks this distance regularly. It's clear that Phoenix Jackson, like the woman in the picture, likely lived a tough life, yet she was persistent in her journeys.

By analyzing the details in both the passage and the photo, we can see "through the real" and find the underlying theme in both: the diligence of Black women in the 1900s.

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I chose this photo of a riverbank as it connects to several themes in "A Worn Path," such as timelessness and companionship with nature.

"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 grandfather clock"(Welty 1).

This excerpt from the passage describes Phoenix Jackson moving with a mission through the rugged forest, despite being very old. This is similar to the continuous flow of a river, which always goes forward, despite the test of time. The imagery underscores Phoenix's enduring spirit and determination, which are qualities that make her seem timeless and unyielding, much like a river that continues its course no matter what is in its way.

"In a ravine she went where a spring was silently flowing through a hollow log. Old Phoenix bent and drank. ‘Sweet gum makes the water sweet,’ she said, and drank more. ‘Nobody know who made this well, for it was here when I was born’"(Welty 30).

This excerpt from the passage shows Phoenix's deep connection to nature, specifically the forest she travels in. She interacts with the spring like it is an old friend, which is shown by the acknowledgment of its sweetness and timelessness. This means that she holds a sense of companionship and loyalty with the spring, as it has always been a part of her life.

Welty's image of the river is personified by Phoenix Jackson, specifically the river's undying spirit and its sense of companionship and loyalty. Through her journey, Phoenix embodies the river's trait of being unstoppable, and the river holds the human quality of loyalty by being with Phoenix her entire life.

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I chose this photo because it represents the struggles and hurdles that Black women faced. Resilience and perseverance were necessary traits to survive. The photo shows two Black women carrying something on their head, which shows the weight and struggle that is being exerted onto them. This burden is reflected in A Worn Path by Eudora Welty, stating, "So she left that tree, and had to go through a barbed-wire fence. There she had to creep and crawl, spreading her knees and stretching her fingers like a baby trying to climb the steps" (Welty 3). Both the photo and the quotes represent struggles in terms of physical objects. The photo represents hardship through the baskets on the head while the story represents hardship with the barbed-wire fence. The importance of "the real" with the physical barriers is elevated when looking "around" and "through" the physical barriers. These barriers personify the societal and struggles of Black women and capture the hardship of life.

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I chose this photo because I feel at least a loose sense of community and caring is present throughout the story and I don't see any other posts about that.

Firstly, the whole reason for her recurring journeys is to get medicine for her grandson's throat which shows her love for her grandson. And after she receives the medicine she continues to think about her family when she remembers that she meant to buy her child a paper windmill while in town. Before she makes it inside the hospital she asks a lady to tie her shoe("‘Stand still then, Grandma,’ said the lady. She put her packages down on the sidewalk beside her and laced and tied both shoes tightly."), which the lady does, this suggests that she might have relationships with people in town. I think that this would be an interesting contrast to the loneliness and hostility of the woods earlier.

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"But Phoenix only waited and stared straight ahead, her face very solemn and withdrawn into rigidity."

There is an idea of the real with how distant people can be. Both the man in the photo and Phoenix in the passage are mentally distant. People get very distant as they age and go through many hard times in their lives. The true reality of this moment is how trauma can affect a person. The image illustrates many different ideas that trauma does to a person. As more times in life happen so does more trauma and the distant look in these two's eyes controls how the viewer thinks about the image. The way these eyes control the image really helps the viewer see the ideas of these two and the reality of the situation.

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I went along with this photo because I believe it's capturing the joy that many people have in their lives, whether they are struggling or not. A scene that comes to mind, " ‘You scarecrow,’ she said. Her face lighted. 'I ought to be shut up for good,’ she said with laughter. ‘My senses is gone. I too old. I the oldest people I ever know. Dance, old scarecrow,’ she said, ‘while I dancing with you.’ " In this scene she had seen a what she thought had been a ghost in the middle of a field, but fortunately she realized it was nothing more than a scarecrow. She then proceeded to laugh about it, finding it foolish she was afraid of an old scarecrow. This scene brought me a sort of nostalgia. Something more profound than just the adventure itself and her hardships along the journey. She finds her spark in a way in her journey, joy in her repetitive trips to the doctor. At some point, she gets used to it and enjoys herself more and more throughout the journey.

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But Phoenix only waited and stared straight ahead, her face very solemn and withdrawn into rigidity.

‘Is his throat any better?’ asked the nurse. ‘Aunt Phoenix, don’t you hear me? Is your grandson’s throat any better since the last time you came for the medicine?’

With her hands on her knees, the old woman waited, silent, erect and motionless, just as if she were in armor.

‘You mustn’t take up our time this way, Aunt Phoenix,’ the nurse said. ‘Tell us quickly about your grandson, and get it over. He isn’t dead, is he?’

At last there came a flicker and then a flame of comprehension across her face, and she spoke.

‘My grandson. It was my memory had left me. There I sat and forgot why I made my long trip.’

‘Forgot?’ The nurse frowned. ‘After you came so far?’

Then Phoenix was like an old woman begging a dignified forgiveness for waking up frightened in the night. ‘I never did go to school — I was too old at the Surrender,’ she said in a soft voice. ‘I’m an old woman without an education. It was my memory fail me. My little grandson, he is just the same, and I forgot it in the coming.’

In "A Worn Path," Eudora Welty wrote about an old Negro woman; Phoenix Jackson who walked a long journey to get to town. Many black women in the United States are far more likely to suffer from dementia when they grow old compared to white people. Dementia along with many other diseases is very common among black elders, but these elders also grow very wise of the things around them due to their hardships that might be similar to those of Phoenix Jackson. The photo taken above shows an old black fortune teller sitting down with her daughter kneeling beside her. The two women in the photo reminded me of a conversation between Ms. Jackson and the nurse. Phoenix Jackson has been around a long time and has seen many things, experienced more, and has grown very wise because of this. Sometimes understanding such an old woman like Ms. Jackson will be difficult for others who are younger and don't understand her, but know her, like the nurse. Welty extends the ideas of "the real" by showing us the struggles of an old lady having to care for her grandson while dealing with forgetfulness and having to travel so far for medicine, especially as a black person back in the 1940s. Welty captures such a reality through her traveling and photography of places and people around her, especially those of minorities.

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In this image, there is a small child looking happily down into the camera. This reflects "the real" as it emphasizes the endurance of hardships, the perseverance, and self-sacrifice that people will go through for the people they love. This is displayed in the way that Phoenix Jackson goes through an extremely arduous journey frequently just for her grandson. While sometimes she can be forgetful, it doesn't really matter because she knows that she is going to make the journey for him anyways. Her love for her grandson is very clearly displayed in the story: "‘My little grandson, he sit up there in the house all wrapped up, waiting by himself,’ Phoenix went on. ‘We is the only two left in the world. He suffer and it don’t seem to put him back at all. He got a sweet look. He going to last. He wear a little patch-quilt and peep out, holding his mouth open like a little bird. I remembers so plain now. I not going to forget him again, no, the whole enduring time. I could tell him from all the others in creation.’" While Welty wrote that the perseverance through the landscape to getting to her destination was "the real" aspect of the story, it was the thought of her grandson which fueled her determination to carry on. Even though there are many interpretations on what "the real" aspect of this story can be, as humans, I believe that one of the things that makes us the most "real" is the ability to love.

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In "A Worn Path," Phoenix Jackson follows a decrepit and jeopardous road similar to the one pictured above. This photo feels very "real" -- obviously it is, but it invokes an uncanny form of nostalgia for a sight that I have never and will never see. Similarly, Phoenix's story feels real in almost the same way. Luckily for me, I will never get to experience the long and arduous walks to town that Phoenix had to endure for the health and wellbeing of her grandson, but this story of an old woman sacrificing so much of her time and energy is a sentiment that most people can hopefully resonate with and appreciate. For this reason, Jackson's story feels very sincere and intimate to us as readers. The following quote hopefully serves to invoke this sense of empathy.

"‘Oh, that’s just old Aunt Phoenix,’ she said. ‘She doesn’t come for herself — she has a little grandson. She makes these trips just as regular as clockwork. She lives away back off the Old Natchez Trace.’ She bent down. ‘Well, Aunt Phoenix, why don’t you just take a seat? We won’t keep you standing after your long trip.’ She pointed."

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This image reminds me of Phoenix Jackson possibly taking care of of her grandson. In the story the author likens Phoenix to a young child in the passage, "So she left that tree, and had to go through a barbed-wire fence. There she had to creep and crawl, spreading her knees and stretching her fingers like a baby trying to climb the steps." and we see that Phoenix is very dedicated in caring for her grandson as she repeatedly walk a long path through the woods to find him medicine.

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"The track crossed a swampy part where the moss hung as white as lace from every limb. ‘Sleep on, alligators, and blow your bubbles.’ Then the cypress trees went into the road. Deep, deep it went down between the high, green-colored banks. Overhead the live oaks met, and it was as dark as a cave."

I chose this picture because it looks a little like what I imagine the "swampy part" of Phoenix's journey to look like. The passage seems to show the dangers that Phoenix has to endure in order to get her grandson's medicine by describing how deep the swamp goes and comparing it to a dark cave. "The real" part of "A Worn Path" is that Phoenix has to keep struggling and putting herself in danger in order to save her grandson. Despite the physical and mental pain, trauma, and poverty that she faces, she makes this trip time after time for no reason other than love for her grandson.

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This picture of an angel statue in a cemetery shows the themes of loss, perseverance, and unseen forces that shape "A Worn Path." While the image captures a static, real-world scene, Welty's writing pushes beyond the literal to explore deeper emotional and symbolic layers. One passage that shows this is when Phoenix Jackson encounters the scarecrow: "She stood straight and faced him. 'Doesn't the wind move you at all? ' she said, touching him with a finger. He stood staring, and she smiled. 'He ain't real,' she said and laughed until her skirt shook." At first, Phoenix mistakes the scarecrow for a living person, much like how the angel statue, seen from behind, gives the illusion of a guardian presence.

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"It was December — a bright frozen day in the early morning. Far out in the country there was an old Negro woman with her head tied in a red rag, coming along a path through the pinewoods."

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I have chosen this photo because I feel like it encapsulates what type of situation Phoenix Jackson was living in. Just like the quote describes, this house was "far out in the country" and by the description of her age and clothing, she may not have a lot of money. This picture helps reveal the message Phoenix Jackson's story is trying to tell about the poor conditions and struggle that Southern people, and especially African-Americans in the South, had to go through. -Kieran Edwards

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“‘Where do you live, Granny?’ he asked, while the two dogs were growling at each other.

‘Away back yonder, sir, behind the ridge. You can’t even see it from here.’

‘On your way home?’

‘No sir, I going to town.’

‘Why, that’s too far! That’s as far as I walk when I come out myself, and I get something for my trouble.’ He patted the stuffed bag he carried, and there hung down a little closed claw. It was one of the bobwhites, with its beak hooked bitterly to show it was dead. ‘Now you go on home, Granny!’

‘I bound to go to town, mister,’ said Phoenix. ‘The time come around.’”

In “A Worn Path,” Eudora Welty extends the idea of “the real” in a way that helps the readers see around and through the real by telling the story of Phoenix Jackson, an elderly black woman who travels long distances to get medicine for her grandson and is acknowledged by others as a “charity case.” By telling this story, Welty is not only revealing the reality of Jackson’s life and her struggles but extending through and around Jackson’s reality to reveal the reality and the struggles of others. This is because, written in 1940, “A Worn Path” came at a time when many people of color–like Jackson–faced economic hardships. Although people’s access to cars was becoming more widespread by this time, many black communities in rural areas did not yet have such widespread access to them. Furthermore, rural communities at the time generally didn’t have as good of access to healthcare, and people who resided in these rural communities, like Jackson, often had to travel long distances if they wanted to access medical care. The photograph that I chose depicts a woman sitting outside making chittlins; her apron is stained and her clothes are practical. There appears to be trash in the background and the photo seems to be taken in a rural area with a modest house shown. The photo was taken in Mississippi in the 1930s. I chose this picture because these small details remind me not only of Jackson’s reality living in a rural area as a woman of color but also of the reality that many other women faced at the time.

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This photo is what I imagine Phoenix Jackson looks like. "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 grandfather clock. She carried a thin, small cane made from an umbrella, and with this she kept tapping the frozen earth in front of her." To me, she is a strong-willed woman who would walk as many miles as she did for her grandson. I think that even the image of her in our minds is something that the writing makes "the real". Even with the description of her, people will imagine her differently based on their different "realities".

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"The path ran up a hill. ‘Seem like there is chains about my feet, time I get this far,’ she said, in the voice of argument old people keep to use with themselves. ‘Something always take a hold of me on this hill — pleads I should stay.’"

I believe this paragraph reflects both the physical mountain - and mental mountain that we see Pheonix Jackson endure throughout the entirety of "A Worn Path". I chose this specific picture because it encapsulates what I imagined the landscape of the article to be. The photo further shows the rough landscape Percy went to in order to get the medicine for her grandson. We also see Percy getting tired as she treads up the hill, citing the hills 'pleads she stays'.

"The Real" in Jacksons reality is the hardships she goes through in order to provide for her family, something she never directly mentions is a hardship for herself.