f other senses as well. The sound of a bird that Welty uses is just one example of how subtle Welty can be when mixing the Egyptian bird into the story. These examples prove that Phoenix is not just an ordinary character but instead, Old Phoenix is a character with a higher meaning. Through Phoenix’s journey, mythology is included again. Phoenix’s journey begins in “December, a bright frozen day in the early morning” (Welty 1). “She is equated with the morning, the rising sun, for she is the immortal bird which rises from its own ashes as the sun rises, and dies only to be reborn” (Ardolino 2). Eudora does not stop with the opening paragraph to incorporate the old legend. “After Phoenix’s arduous journey into town, she arrives at the charity ward where she is to obtain the medicine for her grandson, 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. In this office Phoenix stands, a fixed and ceremonial stiffness over her body” (Jones 5). “Obviously like the embodiment of the original Egyptian sun-god that flew home every five hundred years, this Mississippi Phoenix has returned by instinct to the source of her strength to renew her own youth” (Jones 5). I think that Welty must have been thinking of the bird when she wrote the story because every step Old Phoenix makes is somewhat a reference to the journey of the mythical bird. It is almost eerie to think about how much the two stories have in common. It only takes a small imagination to see how Old Phoenix can be mistaken for the myth. Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path,” in which a woman with tremendous courage makes a visit to town, refers to mythology, including the character Phoenix and her journey. Being able to deconstruct Welty’s story and seeing the resembla...
