Phoenix Jackson, Walking The Worn Path

5 Pages 1135 Words

The short story “A Worn Path” displays a classic example of the Christ like figure, willing to give it all up for another. This work of interpretive literature makes the reader fill in the blanks of whether or not grandma Phoenix’s grandson will recover, whether grandma Phoenix will return home safely, and a host of other issues. “A Worn Path” is a piece of interpretive literature that offers great details about the character and the world that surrounds them.
The interpretive nature of “A Worn Path” adds to the mystery and story telling of the tale. While the main character, Phoenix Jackson, is a very likeable character she has many faults, her lack of education, old age, and unattractiveness. Grandma Jackson’s noble pursuit of medicine for her grandson makes the reader examine what he or she is doing with their lives. You can tell how much she cares for her grandson as she remembers why she made the trip in this quote “My little grandson, he sit up there in the house all wrapped up, waiting by himself,” Phoenix went on. “We is the only two left in the world. He suffer and it don’t seem to put him back at all. He got a sweet look. He going to last. He wear a little patch quilt and peep out holding his mouth open like a little bird. I remembers so plain now. I not going to forget him again, no, the whole enduring time. I could tell him from all the others in creation.” (A Worn Path, pg. 182) A critic has an interesting take on the final conversation in the story, “The adoration of her grandson are the final words Phoenix speaks to another character in the book, a parting premonition that the struggle is going to last. Much like the incident with the hunter, Phoenix reiterates here that conflicts are just stones in the road, obstacles in the path.” (The Explicator pg. 153) You get a sense that this story really has happened and that perhaps it could be being told by her grandson sometime in t...