A Worn Path

"'I'm an old woman without an education. It was my memory fail me. My little grandson, he is just the same, and I forgot it in the coming.'" pg 229
A Worn Path
Eudora Welty


Phoenix Jackson is an old woman who trudges through woods in order to make it to the town that sells her grandson's medicine. This journey must be familiar to her since she is greeted by many people along the way and the people seem to know her so well that they address her as "granny" and "grandma." Throughout this quest, Phoenix frequently sees things that are not really there, almost like hallucinations; for example she imagines a little boy bringing her a plate with cake on it, and she mistakes a scarecrow for a ghost. There is a vibe that Phoenix is a confused old woman through these actions, and also by the fact that she keeps talking out loud to herself.

When she reaches her destination, the nurses ask her all about her grandson. I personally believe that Phoenix's grandson is dead and that the nurses are trying to get her to accept this fact. One nurse asks, "He isn't dead, is he?" maybe hoping that she will admit this truth. When first asked if the boy was better since she last came for medicine, she "waited, silent, erect and motionless, just as if she were in armor." This simile shows that the old woman is unable to give much information about the boy because she may not be able to accept that he could be gone. The old woman seems to be pretending he's not gone because knowing he is would be a reality that is too hard to handle. The theme of this story may be something along of the lines of "Real love continues even after death/after something has passed." It may sound cheesy but Phoenix still cares about her grandson to a great extent since she walks through the woods to get him medicine even though [I'm assuming] he's dead. Or it could be that "Fate is not always easy to accept." Phoenix has a hard time accepting the truth about her grandson, so she pretends it's not actually happening. Either that or the theme is just something concrete like: memory loss causes you to do odd things. I really don't know. Knowing whether or not the grandson is dead may change the theme..