1

I had studied several literary works in my chosen course in my institute, especially

short stories. The short stories that I read and learnt are very attractive, beautiful and
suitable for me to read it. One of the short stories that I love the most is ‘A Worn Path’ which
is written by Eudora Welty. This short story is about an elderly African-American woman who
undertakes a familiar journey on a road in a rural area to acquire medicine for her grandson.

There are several themes in this short story. Some themes from this short story
appears to reflect with various issues faced by our society in this modern age. The first
theme is about the deep-grained habit of love by a grandmother towards her beloved
grandson. As an example of the related event, the Old Phoenix devotes herself in facing
some obstacle in a path through the pinewood only to get her grandson's medicine at the
doctor’s office in Natchez, Mississippi. Her beloved grandson was sick because shallowing
lye which damaged his throat from reaction. The Old Phoenix has left her grandson at home,
who is now waiting for her to come back. She is worried his throat is making him suffer, and
she wants better medicine to help him feel better. She cherishes her sick grandson a lot and
her love for him would make her do anything to protect and care for him. She also seems
confident her love will save him from the suffering that the grandson has. As a result, this
event shows that love between Old Phoenix and his beloved grandson motivates herself to
take such a long trip to Natchez, not just once, but repeatedly.

In other perspective, this theme of the short story, which is a strong love relationship
between family member is absolutely able to reflect with a few issues faced by our society in
this modernization era.

Nowadays, family bonding and love between the family members begin to decrease
among them. Many factors have led to this problem happened until the problem become
more severe in the present. As an example, excessive electronic gadgets usage among the
family members, especially among the youngsters have separated themselves from
socializing with their parents, their relatives, their grandparents and even their friends. Many
of the them are willing to spend their precious time and money with video games and social
media on their handphones rather than their family.

Next, another theme of this short story is racism between two different races. One of
the examples from this story about this theme is the event when a white hunter. helps the
Old Phoenix out of a ditch. After he helped The Old Phoenix out of the ditch, he patronizes
her and trivializes her journey. Later, he taunts her by pointing his loaded gun at her and
asking that does his gun scare her. Through these exchanges, Welty shows how some
 2

whites regarded blacks. The hunter also calls her "Granny” which a term common for older
African-American women as a way of denying them their dignity and individuality. In another
example of this, the one of the women calls "aunt Phoenix" to the Old Phoenix instead of
calling her with the more formal "Mrs. Jackson” when the Old Phoenix arrived at the doctor’s
office. In addition, the women are also speaking to her as if she is stupid when giving her the
medicine. These events show us how the people of white race are disrespectful to the black
race and discriminate against the black people regardless of their age and circumstances.

Moreover, this theme of racism is definitely able to reflect with some issues faced by
our society in nowadays. As an example, many issues about racial discriminations against
black race happened in United States of America. Recently, there was a massive protest
against the same issue took place in the country by a social movement called ‘Black Live
Matters’. Most of black Americans involved in the recent protest with the purpose to demand
George Floyd’s death, a black American who was killed by a policeman during an arrest in
Minneapolis. As a result, the whole country was in great turmoil on that time until it involved
the police and soldiers to act. This proves shows many kinds of racial discriminations such
as police brutality towards the blacks are still prevalent among the society especially in
certain countries until these days.

Finally, charity is also one of the themes in the short story. The theme can be seen in
the event when an attendant makes a traditional gift of charity to Phoenix at the doctor's
office. She does so after being less than respectful to Phoenix. The attendant shouts at
Phoenix when she doesn’t answer her question and announces Phoenix as a charity case.
Afterward, the woman asks if she can give Phoenix "a few pennies" since it is Christmas
time. This theme is also seen in the event when the Old Phoenix plans to use the nickels
which was given to her by the attendant from the doctor’s office to buy something for his
grandchild as a Christmas present for him. In the end of the story, she decides to buy a
paper windmill for him after leaving the doctor’s office.

This theme is also able reflect with some issues faced by our society recently. Most
of people today are very stingy and hate to give charity for those people in need. Nowadays,
we always hear that some people in our country which is Malaysia frequently criticize and
give the bad look to the charity programs. Plus, there is no doubt that there are also a
handful of irresponsible people who have deceived the crowds by abusing the charity
program for their own benefit while oppressing the needy.
 3

As a conclusion, this short story is absolutely attractive and beneficial for the readers
to read. The themes of the story are absolutely related with some issues faced by our
society in the present. So, we need to learn the useful lessons from the themes in this short
story and do not forget to face any issue in an effective and positive way so that it can be
resolved well.
 4

REFERENCES

1. Wikipedia contributors. (2020, August 21). A Worn Path. In Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopaedia. Retrieved 02:48, October 2, 2020, from
 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A_Worn_Path&oldid=974238563
2. Wikipedia contributors. (2020, October 11). Black Lives Matter. In Wikipedia, The
Free Encyclopaedia. Retrieved 13:37, October 14, 2020, from 
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Black_Lives_Matter&oldid=982992182
3. Wikipedia contributors. (2020, October 14). George Floyd. In Wikipedia, The Free
encyclopaedia. Retrieved 13:38, October 14, 2020, from 
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Floyd&oldid=983415924