At first reading of "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty, it appears to be a simple story of an old woman who goes to town to get medicine for her sick grandson, who he swallowed the lye (Welty 3). After further reading and research, the deeper meaning and depth of the story becomes apparent. The well-worn trail is much more than a routine route regularly taken to get to town and back home. Protagonist Phoenix Jackson has many more layers to her than the way she is perceived as an apparent no-account drifter, a charity case, whose only reason for going to town is to see Santa (Welty 2). There is significant meaning behind the interactions with people, places and objects that Phoenix encounters on his journey into the city. Every interaction and situation offers Phoenix the opportunity to learn and grow as a person and as a culture. The sick nephew represents more than a sick boy at home waiting for medicine to cure his physical ailment (Welty 3). Welty uses myriad symbols to tell the story of the long and arduous journey that blacks take to go from slavery to free Americans. A journey that takes lifetimes to accumulate knowledge, gain wisdom and then pass on all that has been learned to children. The next generation develops and refines the wisdom gained and further refines the knowledge as they pass it on to the next generation. It is the acquired wisdom that is constantly reborn like the Phoenix in mythology (Merchant 527). In “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty, Phoenix Jackson symbolizes the past and present population of Black Americans and the worn path represents his experiences and the wisdom he has gained, which will soon be reincarnated in his grandson, America's future generation black. .The......middle of paper......logy and legend. New York: Facts on File, 1988. 527. Print.Moberly, Kevin. “Towards the North Star”. Explainer 13.2. (2009): 107-126. Premier of academic research. Network. November 2, 2011.Phillips, Robert. “Welty.” Contemporary literary criticism. Ed. Daniele Marowski. vol. 33. Detroit: Gale Research Company. 1985. 419. Print.Schmitt, Deborah. Ed. "Welty." Contemporary literary criticism. vol. 105. Detroit: Gale Research Company. 1998. 320. Stampa.Fogli, Anna. Ed. “A worn path”. Criticism of short stories. vol. 27. Detroit: Gale Research Company. 1998. 331-340. Print.Sykes, Dennis. "Welty is the worn path." Explainer 56.3. (2011): 2-3. Premier of academic research. Network. November 2, 2011.Welty, Eudora. “A worn path”. Literature and the writing process. Ed. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X Day and Robert Funk. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, Pearson. 2005. 285-290. Press.