A Worn Path

A Worn Path
Eudora Welty

Phoenix Jackson is a grandmother battered by old age and a loopy mind, but she is the most determined person I have ever read about. She makes a trek through fields and forests in order to get to the city so she can buy medicine for her grandson. The reader learns that Phoenix doesn't have all her marbles when she has multiple visions/delusions during her journey. Not only that, but when she finally arrives at the hospital Phoenix forgot why she was even there, later realizing that it was "My grandson. It was my memory that had left me" (Welty 229). If Phoenix could forget her grandson, the reason she trekked such a treacherous journey, then she must be suppressing the thought of him in some way. The grandson is dead, but Phoenix loves him so much that she still tries to save the memory of him by walking the worn path to get the medicine. It is her determination and her love that drives her to help her grandson, even though she can't physically save him. However, she still has the ability to nurture the memory of him, which has already began to slip from her mind. As long as Phoenix continues her routine of travelling to the hospital, her grandson shall live forever within her.