GRADE 11 (MAGIC OF WORDS: HSEB NEPAL)

A WORN PATH

          --by Eudora Welty

In Egyptian mythology, the Phoenix was a bird… In what way is Phoenix Jackson like the bird phoenix?(Ref. Magic of Words, 82: 3)

There is no doubt Phoenix Jackson lives up to her name that is borrowed from the mythological Egyptian bird phoenix, which supposedly burnt itself on a funeral pyre every five or six centuries and rose from the ashes with renewed youth.

Like the mythological bird, the old Phoenix is portrayed as timelessly old, for there is no accounting for her age. “Her eyes were blue with age,” the face bore “numberless branching wrinkles” and she walked “from side to side in her steps.” Yet, she outlives such disabling physicality and, with some renewed vitality of a youth indicated by the “golden colour” that runs underneath her face, accomplishes her insurmountable journey to the town to fetch medicine for her grandson. The obstacles like the frozen earth, the deep woods, the steep hill, the thorns, the white man, the phantom, and so on that she is faced with on her way are only too many for an old lady like her. But, she is not weighed down by them and relentlessly pursues her goal like a passionate youth with his/ her eyes fixed on the pursuit of a most-cherished object. In fact, Phoenix Jackson displays unimaginable resilience, unparallel heroism, and unwavering resolution typical of those with the vigour and determination of a youth. Besides, she is fortitude personified. In sum, the old Phoenix has some kind of regeneration of her older self with renewed youth, which is justifiably comparable with the regeneration of the mythological bird phoenix.