Symbolism is used in many ways and writers use it to “improve their writing.” This can give their work “more richness and color and make the meaning of the work deeper.” In literary work, the actions of the characters, the words, the action, the place or the event have a deeper meaning in the context of the entire story. The reader should look at the little things like a dove symbolizing peace, or like the red rose represents romance. Almost anything can have symbolic meaning. For example, the flag symbolizes freedom and the stars represent states. Even some signs are symbols, like when a beaker has a skull with bones placed like an "x" behind it, this symbolizes that it is toxic or evil. When people see the red light while driving, it is a symbol for stopping, yellow for slowing down, and green for going. In the short story A Worn Path, an elderly woman of color named Phoenix Jackson walks a path to a town. called Natchez. Phoenix is ​​a small, old woman who wore a dark striped dress with untied laces and she carried “a thin, small cane made from an umbrella,” [Welty 1274] with which she kept her balance. Phoenix overcame many obstacles, such as getting tangled in a torn bush and crossing a stream by stepping on a log above. After that, she sat down to rest and saw a little boy who gave her a marble cake, but it ended when she raised her hand and the boy and the cake were gone. Then she got up from where she was sitting and maneuvered through a barbed wire fence, then crossed an old cotton field and entered a field of dead corn. While in the cornfield, Phoenix encounters a scarecrow that she thought was a man and then a ghost. When she gets out of the corn maze and continues walking and comes across a spring...... middle of paper ...... lty put these many symbolic references in an attempt to draw the reader into the story "A Worn Path." Works Cited 123 Help Me Editors. "Symbolism in 'A Worn Path'." 123Help Me. Np, nd Web. March 17, 2014. Cummings, Michael J. "Study Guide “A Worn Path.” Cummings Study Guides. Inc.; November 6, 2008. March 17, 2014. Welty, Eudora. “An Analysis of Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path.” Wordpress.Np, April 12, 2013.Web.March 17, 2014.Writing Rock, editors. “'A Worn Path' Analysis Research Paper.” WritingRock.Np, ndWeb.March 17 2014.