Journey as a Symbol in Eudora Welty and Jean Rhys Works - Research Paper Example

? Eudora Welty and Jean Rhys have both used “journey” as a symbol in their works “A Worn Path” and “I Used to Live Here Once” respectively. What does the “journey” represent? Why do you think the writers have chosen to use the “journey” to convey their message to the reader? Is it effective in creating resonance with the reader? What other elements are used to reinforce this? Eudora Welty and Jean Rhys have used journey as a symbol in their works “A Worn Path” and “I Used to Live Here Once”. In literary terms, a journey is essentially a quest undertaken by the protagonist to search for something of personal significance. The journey represents the physical journey as well as the inner journey. The writers have chosen to use the symbol of a journey because they want us, the reader, to embark on this path of discovery with the protagonists. Both writers have used setting and symbols extensively to signify the start, the progress and the end of the journey. They have also masterfully created protagonists we can identify with, and as we travel on with the protagonists we are made aware of their feelings and beliefs and we end up empathizing with the protagonists because we could relate to their trials and embrace their humanity as our own, “the hold upon us of a character in fiction, for instance, is its ability to remind us of all those actual people who are therein described”. (Feibleman, 1949) In “A Worn Path”, Welty has endowed her protagonist, “an old Negro woman called Phoenix Jackson” (Welty, 1941, paragraph 1) with a physical quest to make her way to town. This physical journey is also an inner quest in search for immortality. Welty has painted the setting, that of a cold December morning and the character of a very old woman in the first two paragraphs. The antics of an ancient woman are fully described and the likeness of old Phoenix grows clear to us. In just the first few lines, Welty has fully planted this old and wrinkly woman before us and presented us with a suspending question at the same time, why is this “very old and small” (Welty, 1941, paragraph 1) woman making a journey alone in the cold? Similar to Welty, Rhys has also used a symbolic journey in her work “I used to Live Here Once”. Rhys has endowed her protagonist with a physical journey across a river to return to a place she has once lived in. The physical journey is deceptively simple. In actuality, the journey is also a journey of nostalgia and atonement and carries the enormous weight of memories. The start of the journey begins with the protagonist “standing by the river” (Rhys, 1976, paragraph 1). The protagonist describes the stepping stones with great detail. Each one is different but the stones are exactly as she remembers and this is significant because in the scenes after, she seems uncertain of the way things should look. Like Welty, Rhys has presented us with a suspending question here, what has taken place that makes the protagonist reacts thus? The missions of the quests in both works are not made clear to the reader till the end of the story. However, both Welty and Rhys have used the setting extensively to show the protagonist’s progress with the journey, the passing of time and their state of mind. The characters of old Phoenix and the ghost girl are fleshed out so well that towards the end of the journey, not only are the quests explained, we also empathize with the characters. As old Phoenix embarks on her journey, Welty let us know that old Phoenix is familiar with the path but the journey is long. Along the journey, old Phoenix has to cross different terrains. The pinewood at the onset of the journey marks the starting point of old Phoenix’s inner quest for immortality, as pine trees are often associated with immortality. The quest is not without a struggle. It is an uphill battle but old Phoenix is resolute. She then has to make her way through a forest of oak trees, oaks representing strength and wisdom to be gained. At this point, Welty has aptly used the setting to describe Phoenix’s journey up and downhill and in and out forests. It is arduous indeed for a person of Phoenix’s age, but her resolve speaks of a higher mission. As Phoenix travels on, she encounters more obstacles and here Welty introduces another trait in old Phoenix’s character, her faith. This can be seen when old Phoenix must cross a log. Instead of watching her step carefully, old Phoenix “mounted on the log and shut her eyes.” “Then she opened her eyes and she was safe on the other side.” (Welty, 1941, paragraph 11) The whole imagery is that of old Phoenix taking a leap of faith and she is delivered safe and sound to the other side. Rhys also lets us know her protagonist is familiar with her path. As she stands by the bank, she remembers after the slippery stone “it was easy and soon she was standing on the other side.” (Rhys, 1976, paragraph 1) The other side” in Rhys’ work is very different from Welty’s. Unlike old Phoenix where she relies on her faith to take her “to the other side” and to safety, the protagonist in Rhys’ work takes the wrong step and lands on “the other side” of life and that of death. This is when we realize the protagonist is dead and she is revisiting the place that has caused her death. She has slipped on the stone, fallen into the river and died. The journey to discovery presents the reader with another set of questions here. What is Phoenix’s higher mission? Why would the ghost girl revisit the place of her death? As we journey on with the protagonists searching for enlightenment, we uncover their inner quests. This echoes the premise of the thesis that the journey is a quest by the protagonist searching for something of personal significance. Welty provides the reader with the explanation in the next part of old Phoenix’s journey. Through the abundant use of symbols and color, Welty has painted scene after scene of death and mortality, whereby old Phoenix has to transcend to achieve immortality. She encounters symbolic scenes such as “big dead trees, like black men with one arm”, “withered cotton field” (Welty, 1941, paragraph 16) “field of dead corn” (Welty, 1941, paragraph 20) and “a scarecrow” (Welty, 1941, paragraph 26) which she mistook as a ghost. It seems old Phoenix is on a death march. When she finally emerges from the black and bleak, she has transcended death. Here, Welty lets old Phoenix drink from a spring, a symbol of longevity and it is sweet to old Phoenix, “sweet-gum makes the water sweet” (Welty, 1941, paragraph 31). Old Phoenix seems to have attained immortality indeed when subsequent encounters with a black dog, then dropping into a ravine and a white hunter pointing a gun at her are no more than brushes with death, which old Phoenix dismisses haughtily. Rhys has also provided the reader with an explanation in the next part of the protagonist’s journey by employing a variety of symbols to illustrate the protagonist’s life journey. The river is moving water and stands for the irreversible passage of time and the stepping stones “variously safe and treacherous, represent a dangerous passage though life.” (Morrell 100), are life choices. Things somehow seem different to the protagonist after she has crossed to “the other side”. She has stepped on the wrong stone, the slippery one, made the wrong choice and as a result she is dead. The protagonist does not realize she is dead, only things are not the way she remembers them. Her belief is reinforced in her describing that things simply look “glassy” (Rhys, 1976, paragraph 3). Rhys has used the distortions as a means to convey to the reader there is something not quite right with the protagonist and what is happening. Since her last visit “The road was much wider” and “the bushes looked trampled” (Rhys, 1976, paragraph 2). Under normal circumstances the protagonist should feel perplexed by the distortions. Instead, she feels “extraordinarily happy.” (Rhys, 1976, paragraph 2) When the one point of certainty, “the clove tree” (Rhys, 1976, paragraph 4) which she remembers exactly falls away and is replaced with a car which she does not remember, her doubt ripples wider. However, she still has not come to the sad realization that she has died. At this point, both works have reached a defining point. The reader is about to discover the meaning behind the journey. Old Phoenix finally reaches town. Welty again uses symbols to deliver her message. It is Christmas time and the town is decorated with lively colors. Phoenix’s final destination is at the doctor’s. Christmas is synonymous with rebirth and it is significant that old Phoenix arrives at this time. Welty reveals to the reader here that old Phoenix has made the long and difficult journey to get medicine for her grandson. As old Phoenix talks to the nurse and waits for the medicine, she savors her new gained wisdom. Her long journey has given her the insight that although she has faced death symbolically and transcended it, she is not going to live out her life in immortality. Instead, her immortality is going to live on in her grandson and the journey for the medicine is in fact life-giving. Here, Welty’s use of the mythological symbol, the phoenix is explained. Welty has described Phoenix as having the colorings of red and gold, just like the mythical bird and she is also named Phoenix. The myth of the phoenix is that the bird would engulf itself in flames and dies. Out of the ashes, it rises again as a young bird and the cycle repeats itself. Phoenix will make the arduous journey back and forth to bring medicine for her grandson over and over again. The journey therefore has a double meaning for old Phoenix. It is the physical quest for her grandson’s medicine. Much more so it is an inner quest to find immortality by facing death, transcending it and passing the gift of life to her grandson. The final realization for Rhys’ protagonist is when she sees two white children under a tree. She tries to make contact with them. She says hello and wave to them but “they didn’t answer or turn their heads”. (Rhys, 1971, paragraph 5) She gets nearer and reaches out again. The boy looks past her, he can’t see her. Instead he says “Hasn’t it gone cold all of a sudden” (Rhys, 1971, paragraph 9) to illustrate the ghostly coldness of the protagonist. This is the moment of truth for the protagonist and it dawns on her that she is dead and “That was the first time she knew.” (Rhys, 1971, paragraph 11) All of a sudden it makes sense to the reader and the protagonist why everything is not quite right. The protagonist is very certain of the way the stones look because it is etched in her memory before she dies. After a certain time, the protagonist returns to the same place but it has changed in little ways. The protagonist can detect these changes because it is a place endearing to her and we find out at the end of her journey that she has lived here before. The protagonist’s journey in Rhys work is imbued with nostalgia and she wants to atone for her “misstep”. The protagonist visits the place she has once lived with a nostalgic fondness and the language Rhys use is filled with longing. She tries to make sense of her surrounding but realizes in the end that she has done something which cannot be undone. The slippery stone that if we are not careful, would be our undoing, just like the protagonist. She attempts to make amends but we realize, along with the protagonist that the state she is in is irreversible and some things cannot be undone, just like the flow of the river. Kneiger, in “Humpty Dumpty and Symbolism” points out “the futility of trying to undo certain actions” as seen in “an army of men to put together the fragile, broken egg”, “but how better dramatize the universal desire to undo what has been done?” (Kneiger, 1959) Welty and Rhys have used the journey as a symbol a “special language which will alone be capable of expressing his personality and feelings” (Wilson, 1959) to convey their message to the reader. For both writers the symbol of the journey is a quest for something of personal significance. In “A Worn Path” old Phoenix embarks on the journey to search for an elixir for her grandson and her own immortality. In “I Used to Live Here Once” the protagonist makes a nostalgic journey back to a place she has lived and died in, in an attempt to undo the past. Both writers have successfully created compelling characters in old Phoenix and the ghost girl and we cannot help but feel for them. We are able to empathize with the characters because we have embarked the journey with the protagonists from the very beginning and travelled with them all the way to the end. The characters are “a complex of emotional experience”, “and the power of the symbol is to arouse the deep emotional self, and the dynamic self, beyond comprehension” (Lawrence, 1936) and because of this, we want old Phoenix to live forever, so she could continue to bring medicine to her grandson and pass on the gift of life. We want to see the ghost girl undo her past so she could have a second chance at life. What’s more, we feel compelled to embark on our very own journey because a seed of curiosity has been planted at the end of the stories. We are presented with what-ifs, what if the story takes a different turn, what if the characters make a different choice, what if we are to make the journey? We want to try on all the possibilities and to do so we must embark on our own journey to discover the truth. Text and References Feibleman, James K. (1949). Aesthetics. New York. Duell, Sloan and Pierce. Knieger, Bernard M. (1959). “Humpty Dumpty and Symbolism”. College English, XX. Morrell, Carol A. (1990). “The World of Jean Rhys’s Short Stories.” Washington. Three Continents Press. Wilson, Edmund. (1931). “Axel’s Castle: A Study in the Imaginative Literature of 1870-1930”. New York. Charles Scribner’s Sons. Lawrence, D.H. (1936). “Selected Literary Criticism”. London. The Viking Press, Inc. Read More