A Worn Path

As I read "AWorn Path" by Eudora Welty, the character of Phoenix Jackson struck me as very complex. She seemed to be an old and fragile black woman. Phoenix wandered through country and forests. The reader never even knew where she was going until halfway through the story when she met the man in the woods. This man even met her at gun point and Phoenix continued on her way to town to get medicine for her grandson. Her main character trait would be stubborn determination. Even though she was older and the journey was not easy, she continued on her way and got up after every stumble. The love she had for her grandson was also an amazingly deep. She was going through all of this trouble and a days travel just to get medicine to help her grandson feel more comfortable.

Another part of Phoenix's character was maybe not as positive. As the reader, I got a sense that maybe Phoenix was not all there. She begins to talk to the animals and plants. She even thinks she sees a ghost. "Ghost, 'she said sharply, 'who you be the ghost of?For I have heard of nary a death clost by" (Welty, 225). Similarly, she thinks a little boy brings her a piece of cake. "She did not dare to close her eyes, and when a little boy brought her a plate with a slice of marble-cake on it  ...But when she went to take it there was just her own hand in the air" (Welty, 224). Then, after her dangerous and long journey, when she gets to the office/clinic, she forgets why she went there.