'Phoenix Jackson and the Modern Day Woman Essay\r'

'A capital of Arizona is a fabulous bird of great witness fabled to abide 500 or 600 long time in the Arabian wilderness, to burn itself on a funeral pyre, and to rise from its ashes in the freshness of youth and live through other cycle of years: often an emblem of immortality or of reborn idealism or hope; a person or thing of peerless beauty or excellence; a person or thing that has become renewed or resto deprivation afterwards suffering calamity or app arnt radioactive decay; A person or thing regarded as uniquely remarkable in some respect.\r\nEudora Welty, in her character phoenix capital of Mississippi, creates humanity’s imitation of the phoenix firebird from oriental tradition (Wampler 4 June 2013). Although capital of Arizona capital of Mississippi can non congeal claim to the immortality manifested by consuming fiery re features (as does the unreal bird), she possesses a fiery spirit and is consumed by fuck for her grandchild (Wampler 4 June 2013). ge nus capital of Arizona capital of Mississippi is wise, confident, fearless, tenacious, courageous, and has a authorise goal in mind, which is to bum around her grandson’s cargon for despite any(prenominal) obstacle that she may face.\r\n capital of Arizona Jackson can be summed up in one word which is noble. All women should have the characteristics of Phoenix Jackson but some of those characteristics are world lost with the evolving society. Phoenix Jackson is an elderly African American woman walking into town on a c hoary winter morning to get medicine for her sick grandson. One spirit of Phoenix’s likeness to the mythical phoenix is their journey before they die. The Natchez Trace is an old highway that runs from Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, disseminated multiple sclerosis (Natchez Trace 27 whitethorn 2013).\r\nBy 1800 it was the busiest in the American South (Natchez Trace 27 May 2013). Phoenix lives â€Å"a way back rack up the Old Natchez Trace,â € which indicates that the journey along with the fact that it is declination is concentrated for her (A worn down pass n. d. ). The obstacles she faces shows how deeply she cares and sacrifices for her grandson. At the end, when we are told she â€Å"began on the stairs, going down” it indicates that she is set about with a return journey as difficult as the one she has just completed (A faint-hearted driveway n. d. ).\r\nShe is as well as between 80-100 years old which further magnifies the intensity of her journey and the tragic stead of her grandson’s dependence on her. Like more people who have lived to be Ms. Jackson’s age, they gain strength from the years of trials and experiences in their lives. Ms. Jackson was unschooled, black and a woman who grew up during the depressive disorder and sla precise years. This along with her many years on earth have made her cautious, strong willed and driven. Phoenix’s appearance is yet another asp ect of her likeness to the phoenix.\r\nAt the beginning of the story, Phoenix is draw as having a â€Å"g ancient color [running] underneath [her skin], and the two knobs of her cheeks were illuminated by a scandalmongering burning under the dark” (A Worn Path n. d. ). Welty further describes Phoenix’s hair as being tied back in a â€Å"red rag” (A Worn Path n. d. ). These images cannot be taken to be a mere synchronic as the phoenix from the ancient Egyptian fabrication is described as having a beautiful red and gold plumage. Furthermore, Phoenix’s eyes are said to be â€Å"blue with age” (A Worn Path n. d. ).\r\nThis description is the first of many that fall flat an indication of her age. The phoenix is a bird that matures to an fundamental age before it bursts into flame and is reborn from the ashes. Welty also employs some rather unusual imagery, in which she describes Phoenix’s skin as having â€Å"a contour all its own of numb erless branching wrinkles as though a whole little tree stood in the middle of her forehead” (A Worn Path n. d. ). All of these ties back in with the age the phoenix grows to. During the 1940’s women’s roles and expectations in society were changing rapidly.\r\nPreviously women had very little say in society and were stereotyped to stay theater, have babies, to be a good home maker and wife. new(a) day women have it so easy compared to women in the 1940’s. Women today have many career opportunities that were not open to women of the 20th century. In fact, the great absolute majority of women were illiterate be exploit it was assumed that they didn’t need to learn if all the work they would do in keep was raise children. Women of the twenty-first century have feeler to dozens of labor-saving devices that allow them to do housework in a fraction of the time that it took women in the olden days (Women’s Rights).\r\nWomen today use birth control to plan the size of their families. Centuries ago, it was not unhearable of for women to have 11 children, and childbirth was the single highest cause of death for women in their 20s and 30 (Women’s Rights). Women in these times live under a legal expert system that tries to stop domestic violence, whereas women in 1808 were the prop of their husbands, who could do what ever they liked without penalty (Women’s Rights). No policeman or judge would ever think a man had done ravish if he ‘had’ to beat his wife to get her to behave.\r\n current women control their own finances. Women two hundred years ago were unable to sign for a trust loan without a male consenting to formalise (Women’s Rights). They were judged incapable of owning property, sluice to the point that any property that they brought with them into their marriage or inherited from their beginner was immediately transferred to the safe keeping of their husbands (Womenâ€⠄¢s Rights). If he then turned it into cash and invested it in a business deal that went bad, the wife had no repair to recover the money. Women were only given the vote in 1920 (Women’s Rights).\r\nBefore that, they had no say some(prenominal) in the laws that were passed that affected their lives. In a hardly a(prenominal) ways, newfangled women have a harder time than women of yesteryear. at present some women move so far from home that their social and family networks break down. It appears that women living in the 21st century have it vastly easier than women of the 1940’s, although not in every case. Phoenix Jackson was a very rare woman during her time and she is unlike the modern women of today. Not many women today or even back then would do what she did for her grandson.\r\nMost women are focused on their careers and would send their husband or nanny to get the medicine for their child. Phoenix Jackson sacrificed a lot because of the love she had for her grandson. Phoenix Jackson’s courage and tenacity are illustrated repeatedly as she faces crisis after crisis during her journey â€a frigid day in December, animals in the thicket, hills, thorny bushes, creeks, barbed-wire fences, a com field maze, superstition, a hunter’s gun, a tower of steps, her own forgetfulness, and failing physical healthâ€all obstacles to be overcome (Wampler 4 June 2013). And that’s what Phoenix Jackson does (Wampler 4 June 2013).\r\n'