Following A Worn Path by Welty The stories blend together in a long history of oppression. Slave ships transport thousands of Africans from the Gold Coast into America's grip, callously beginning the racial saga of black America. Workers collapse after spending hours grinding their fingers on cotton plants. Sobbing mothers tenderly clean the flesh that the cat o' nine tails has torn from their child's back. America eventually witnesses the emancipation of slaves and even relative “equality,” but the obstacles for an African American will never completely disappear. Eudora Welty, in her short story “A Worn Path,” symbolically illustrates the obstacles that African Americans face—obstacles that white Americans have never had to face. Welty symbolically shows, through the perseverance of an elderly black woman, that African Americans can and must overcome these unjust obstacles to complete the path to racial equality. In each of the obstacles she encounters, protagonist Phoenix Jackson metaphorically confronts the underlying issues. struggles that African Americans face. While traveling to town to buy medicine for her nephew, Phoenix has to extricate her dress from a thorny bush. He has to climb through a barbed wire fence. She is thrown into a ditch by a loose dog. He stands in front of the barrel of a white man's gun. Even though these events could have happened to anyone, Welty intends to allude to racism. The hunter would have helped Phoenix, if she had been white, reach her destination. The nurse at the doctor's office would have addressed her with more respect than "Speak loudly, Grandma... are you deaf?" (Welty 97). And if she were white, she wouldn't face these trials alone; someone would accompany her on the trip or simply go to get her medicine. Each of these events, however, represents a broader reach: a rude racial slur, a segregated and dilapidated bathroom, or a look of hatred, which humiliates a person of color until they hang their head in shame. Instead of being accompanied on the street, as an elderly person deserves, Phoenix must face her problems alone. By depicting Phoenix's perseverance for his nephew, Welty demonstrates the importance of fighting racism. The grandson represents the younger generation, the generation worth sacrificing for. Welty recognizes that the path to equality will be difficult: "It feels like there are chains on my feet, it's time I got this far... Something always keeps me on this hill? It's begging me to stay" (94). Phoenix faces trials such as crossing the log over the stream and overcoming memories of bulls and two-headed snakes.