What metaphors are used in A Worn Path by Eudora Welty?

The "path" serves as a metaphor for Phoenix's life, which has been a struggle across the literal landscape. The path is also a metaphor for the figurative road from bondage to freedom that African Americans have taken with the hope that it will one day lead to equality. Fraught with peril, the worn path mirrors both the individual and collective sense of the metaphor.