"A Worn Path": Review

​Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” is a heartwarming but dramatic story of a rather old African-American lady named Phoenix Jackson who is on a journey from her hometown to Natchez, where she receives a medicine for her grandson twice every year. Welty masterfully dramatizes the journey, the description of which takes up about ninety percent of the narrative. Phoenix encounters many obstacles on the way, such as a ravine, a corn field that seems to her like a maze because of her failing eyesight, wild animals, and even a young white hunter who points his gun at her. But she is unafraid, truly an example of a human being triumphant over her circumstances. She talks to all the inanimate obstacles as if they were alive, befriending them yet warning them that she is unafraid. All throughout the journey the reader is kept in suspense about the outcome and fears the worst, especially when the young hunter essentially threatens her life. The story might be set in the time of Lynchings, and it is unclear if that danger hangs over Phoenix. Therefore, the reader is greatly relieved to find that Phoenix not only succeeds in reaching the destination but manages to earn a whole dime in the process to buy her grandson a pinwheel. This is a story of a great will of an incredible human being on a quest.