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Literary Theme "A Worn Path"

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Literary Theme "A Worn Path"
Literary Theme in “A Worn Path”
Patricia M. Winbush
ENG 125
Karen McFarland
March 11, 2012

In “A Worn Path”, the theme though out the story is about a strong undying love an old woman has for her grandchild. According to Clugston 2010, the theme in a story is associated with an idea that lies behind the story. Every story narrows a broad underlying idea, shapes it in a unique way, and makes the underlying idea concrete. That 's how theme is created. In other words, the theme in a story is a representation of the idea behind the story.

While a hard journey for an old woman, a grandmother 's undying love shows the depths she was willing to go to take care of her grandchild. When you love someone, there is no journey too far or too hard when that person is in need. The old woman took that journey to get the medicine needed to help the child. Although the medicine did not helping the child in the past, this woman had hopes that maybe, this time it would, and was willing to go to any length to find out. When it comes to a one’s child or in this case a grandchild, there are no lengths one would not go to make them healthy and happy.

Though the story does not tell us where the mother of this child was, it does indicate that the child was depending on his grandmother to help him, and it also seems as though the child was all old Phoenix had, and she did not want to loose him. Any one who has children would do almost anything to protect that child, even if it meant walking miles through the deep woods in the blazing sun to make sure you did everything possible to make that child feel better.

This story is about the sacrificial love this grandmother had for her grandson who was sick from swallowing lye and the only way to make his throat feel better was for this old woman to walk miles through treacherous woods to get medicine for him that may or may not work. The story is told in the “Third–person point of view which



References: Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books

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