Race and Class Theme Analysis

In its depiction of the journey of an impoverished black woman in Mississippi, “A Worn Path” explores the realities of race and class in the South at a time when slavery was still within living memory. The depiction of race in the story is not simplistic. Rather, through Phoenix’s experiences with other people, Welty shows the complicated ways that blacks and whites interact in the early 1940s South, with single encounters shifting within moments from kindness to menace, helpfulness to command. Symbolically, perhaps unexpectedly, a black dog and a black scarecrow derail Phoenix’s journey, suggesting how the fact of their race disadvantages black people. Meanwhile, a white hunter who at first helps Phoenix to her feet after she’s fallen then points a gun at her, threatening her in an almost casual manner, a reflection of the privilege afforded to white people at that time in the South and the fundamental disregard whites had for the security or comfort of black people. However, at the end of the story, after successfully reaching the city and getting medicine for her sick grandson and gathering together ten cents in the process, Phoenix raises her “free arm” and thinks of the present she will buy her grandson. In this way her own path from slavery to freedom is emphasized, and Phoenix’s grandson becomes a symbol of the possibility of a better future of black people, though his illness suggests that possibility is by no means assured.

Phoenix is described as an incredibly poor woman, and she is acutely aware of the trapping of class. She desires, for example, that her shoes be tied so she has some dignity before entering what seems to be the town hospital. At the same time, Phoenix is not above stealing a bit of money, as when she distracts the hunter and slyly nicks a nickel. After her theft, though, she worries about her vulnerability to punishment as a poor black women, reflecting that she has seen “plenty [guns] go off closer by, in my day, and for less than what I done”. Later, in the hospital, the attendant gives her a nickel as charity, and while standing “stiffly” she “carefully” accepts the coin. From these instances we understand that Phoenix is both proud and clever, thinking highly of herself but not above getting the money and medicine she needs through whatever means she can, while also being aware of the potential debasement and dangers of her position. Money becomes a tool of empowerment for Phoenix, even as the stealing and the charity suggest a separation of classes. That she then uses the money not to buy the bare necessities but rather for a relatively luxurious – and certainly delicate – paper windmill that will show her grandson the wonders of the world suggests her hope of what the future holds and the way that having hope fuels her will to go on, but also the fragility of achieving those hopes in a world of unyielding racial and class divisions.