A Worn Path

This short story was written by Eudora Welty in 1940.  This story is about an old African-American lady who walks into town to get medicine for her ailing grandson.  This walk isn’t your ordinary 20 minute walk to a store on a nice sidewalk though, nope!! This woman has to endure many hardships along the way.

The elderly lady’s name is Phoenix Jackson, she is a very old lady, and has a bit of a rough time getting around. At one point Phoenix has a hallucination in the forest, and once in town she even forgets her grandsons name.  One would think that she would stop this trip and get someone else to get the medicine for her grandson, but they have no one else, just each other.

Phoenix’s trip is a very long one that takes a good part of the day to make it into town.  On this trip she has to travel through a forest filled with wildlife and a lot of dangers, she has to cross on a log over water.  This could be very dangerous because if she fell, there might not be anyone around for ages to help her, and it could prove to be very fatal.

I really enjoyed this story because it showed the love that the grandmother had for her grandson, because he had swallowed lye by accident some years ago, she was willing to go on this trip as often as needed no matter how old, how tired or how frail she was.  This story was a very good example of the unbreakable bond of love!