A Worn Path

2 Pages 421 Words

A Vital Path
Life is full of purposeful journeys. These journeys are often taken to overcome, to succeed, or to protect. In Eudora Welty’s short story “A Worn Path,” the elderly Phoenix Jackson sets out on one of these voyages. Her trip down the path is a vital part of her life and essential to the survival of her grandson and herself.
Beginning her perilous trip to town, Phoenix confidently exclaims, “’Out of my way all you foxes, owls, beetles, jack rabbits, coons, and wild animals!…I got a long way.’” Phoenix knows what trials she must face, and she is determined to overcome them. When her eyesight fails her and she is caught in brambles, she works intently to remove them from her tangled skirts and continues along her way. Phoenix encounters even more challenge when the initially amiable hunter becomes unpleasant and disrespectful and tries to frighten her into going home. Needless to say, Phoenix is not deterred; she says, “’I bound to go on my way, mister,’” and continues down the path. Surmounting these challenges keeps Phoenix determined to complete her journey.
Phoenix’s trip down the path is crucial to her sick grandson. Her love for him runs deep and she knows that she must make this journey for him. Without Phoenix’s resolve to repeatedly travel to town for medicine, her grandson’s illness may take his life. If that were to occur, because of Phoenix’s old age, she may no longer have the will to keep living.
Phoenix also makes the journey for herself. The old woman’s name alludes to the fabled Egyptian phoenix that, after five hundred years of life, consumes itself in flames and is resurrected from its ashes. Like the bird, Phoenix Jackson periodically makes her journey and is, in a sense, reborn from her experience. When she skillfully crosses a log over a creek and says, “’I wasn’t as old as I thought,’” it is clear that the trials Phoenix faces on the path g...