Traveling

Traveling

In literature, one may be surprised at the amount of literary foreshadowing found in the text. Many of which must be read and reread to grasp what the author is actually telling the reader. Most of which pertains to the value of life instilled in the characters by the author. In Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, and Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path”, life is very important to the main characters. Numerous times in both stories, the main character warns others of harm and protects them from impairment. Old Phoenix from “A Worn Path” was even making a trip to prevent possible death in her grandson. Both authors use sensory details that give the reader a look into the future and what may come as the story continues. As we progress, or travel through our live span it is like that of a path; whether road or dirt trail, we encounter things that give us incite on what is ahead of us and is affected by the choices we make. As we pursue a chosen path, just as the characters in these two short stories, it becomes our story. We live and learn while on this trail and possibly arrive upon events that could foreshadow future success or possible turmoil.

In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, the title alone displays the choice of mischief over that of good. We find early on in the short story that a criminal has escaped from a federal penitentiary. The “Misfit” is headed toward Florida where grandmother and the family are heading on vacation. Although the chances are slim that they would encounter the villain, grandmother is not quite convinced that the family would be safe traveling to Florida. However, the choice was made to face the danger with the odds in their favor. Sometimes in life we make choices/decisions that we are aware may potentially be dangerous. Instead of turning away and taking the safe and easy road in life, we may choose the dangerous path with our goal in sight without looking back. Grandmother and the family risked the improbable to enjoy their vacation, which was their goal.

In Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path”, the main character, Phoenix Jackson is a small old Negro woman. Phoenix is traveling into the city for a visit at the doctor’s office. She trudges along a well beaten path through the dark pine meadows as if she had traveled this direction often. I picture this as a time in one’s life when events and people in life are not going as well as planned. There is a luminous light over them walking through a dark time. This could also foreshadow imminent death or struggles. Whether one is to break off the trail in fear or press onward, future events are based upon that decision. She faces multiple obstacles on the trail, whether seen or imagined, she faces these with zeal. In life, we face obstacles ourselves. As she makes her journey, she taps the ground with her makeshift umbrella cane forewarning the small animals from getting in her path and slowing her along. Her cane represents lessons learned in life and how one can use earlier events to prepare oneself to prevent future downfalls. As an elderly lady, she has been through some rough times in her life that she can take along with her. In this case these imaginations of small animals are not present; Phoenix is simply imagining her fears and letting them get in the way of her goals. An old Swedish Proverb once said, “Worry gives a small thing a big shadow”. In our lives, we attempt to scare away small obstacles that may hinder us from reaching our goal safely. Instead of worrying over these small things, we must focus our mind on the larger than life problems and prepare ourselves instead of risking failure over obstacles of no importance. Whether we alert our possible shortfalls physically or mentally push them aside, we let events in our imagination get in the way of attaining what we are constantly yearning for. Phoenix lets her mind focus on the erroneous things and totally forgets to bring along with her the entire reason of making the trip to the city, her grandson. We so often forget the important valuables in life we must have to reach our goal and let our mind lead us in the wrong direction.

Throughout our lifespan, we focus on timing and plan deadlines for just about everything. In Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, immediately after departure, grandmother stores in her memory the mileage and time at which the family left Atlanta on their vacation. A deadline of three days had been set for the amount of time available to use on their trip. Just as most families do on vacations, an itinerary of events is set up for the best way to fill up the time. When grandmother wanted to pull off the highway to see the old mansion, Bailey quickly rejects the idea momentarily for fear of lost time. Grandmother knew Bailey would not be willing to lose time by looking at an old house but the more she talked about it the more intrigued the children began to become. Little did anyone know this small detour would lead to the ultimate death of the entire family.

Another virtue of time is how we give it the impression of being always changing. Grandmother recalls the “good ole days” how it was much safer and teenagers respected the elderly greater. We all know that times do not change in this manner. Grandmother and Red Sammy collect their thoughts of this time period