In "A Worn Path," what do the following represent: eyes, barbed wire, the dress, withered cotton field, the scarecrow, trees silver in their dead...

Like many
of her stories, s , first published in 1941, is a portrayal of life and characters in the
American South. It is a deeply symbolic story, describing the hardship of a difficult journey to
talk about wider struggles. As with any use of symbolism, interpretation can differ depending on
the reader, but if we take into account the connections between the plot, characters, and
setting, and the symbols used to portray them, some meanings become clear.

Eyes as a symbol are often connected to vision, seeing, the future, and the idea of a deeper
meaning. Here we learn that Phoenixs eyesight is failing: "her eyes were blue with
age," we discover at the start. The mention of her eyes is a way to show her age and
frailty while also suggesting there are things to see underneath the surface, that there are
ways to see beyond what is in front of our eyes. Phoenix, for example, uses memory as a way to
see, working her way along the familiar tracks. Eyes as a...