A Worn Path
"So callous where my mind states, but it's not my state of mind." This clever play on words by the band Eve 6 may help you to understand the state of mind of Phoenix Jackson, the main character of the short story "A Worn Path," written by Eudora Welty in 1941. For although this elderly black woman had to take a long and difficult journey through woods and thorns and over steep hills to get medicine for her deathly ill grandson, she keeps going. All around her things are trying to stop her, but in her mind she will not give up! Unfortunately, Phoenix's old age, the natural environment and her poverty make the journey to town a long and trying battle that she must overcome. As the story opens, Phoenix is described as " ... very old and small and she walked slowly in the dark pine shadows, moving a little from side to side in her steps, with the balanced heaviness and lightness of a pendulum in a grandfather clock." This shows how Phoenix's old age affected her ability to travel the distance from her home to the town. This quote paints a picture of Phoenix in your mind as a tiny old woman bent over from age, slowly inching along a path through the woods, teetering from side to side, threatening to fall over at any second. La
This is obvious when Phoenix finally reaches her goal, the doctor's office in town and the attendant says, looking at her, "A charity case, I suppose. She had struggled through these hindrances and had proven herself as a brave, strong and courageous woman, willing to do anything for the only other person in her life, her grandson. The attendant gives her a nickel from her own pocket because she sees that Phoenix needs it much more than she does and should get something more than just medicine for walking all that way on such a hard road. But this was not the only barrier blocking Phoenix's way. We could all learn a thing or two from Phoenix Jackson, so that when we have things that are trying to keep us from the goal we are journeying to, we can be like Phoenix, overcome these barriers and come out on top. After making it up and over the steep hill, she went through another woods, over a creek and through thorny bushes, she refused to give up. " By Phoenix saying that she has no senses left and that she is "too old", so old, in fact, that she has never known anyone older, shows that Phoenix is well aware of how much she is affected by her age on this long, trying journey. ter in the story Phoenix says to the scarecrow, "My senses gone. This is the message "A Worn Path" expresses, and it is an inspiring one. Her path had become uncertain, as she had to make her way through a "maze" of dead corn without any help, she could not be sure of anything, and it would have been a great deal easier if she just turned back and followed that steady path back home, but Phoenix was determined. " She had already traveled a great distance, especially for an old woman, and as she exerted her energy, straining to climb the hill, it felt like great chains we on her feet, weighing her down and trying to keep her from completing her journey. Phoenix Jackson overcame her old age, the trials of the environment and her poverty to make it to town and get her grandson's medicine he needed to stay alive. " This shows the reader that just by looking at her clothes and general outward appearance, the attendant, who had no idea who she was, could tell how poverty stricken Phoenix was and assumed that I was a charity case, which it was. But then She comes upon a place where there is no path at all, "Through the maze now," was how Phoenix described it.
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Acceptance Essays
