Conflict And Characters In Eudora Welty's A Worn Path

A Worn Path, written by Eudora Welty, is a short story representing undying love and devotion and how it empowers us to move forward. Such is the case for our main character, Phoenix Jackson, an African-American elderly woman who makes an all too familiar trek through an unnamed rural path towards the city to obtain medicine for her grandson. The use of setting, conflict, and character help the reader to envision the struggles and perseverance of an oppressed elderly Phoenix.

“It was December—a bright frozen day in the early morning.” The overall setting of the story is set in rural America, in what seems to be the South. Snow and frost cover the ground, and the weather is particularly chilly, and there is an added risk of either hypothermia,

Throughout the story, Welty describes the path as being incredibly difficult to travel for someone of Phoenix’s age and condition. ‘She was very old and small and she walked slowly in the dark pine shadows, moving a little from side to side in her steps, with the balanced heaviness and lightness of a pendulum in a grandfather clock. She carried a thin, small cane made from an umbrella, and with this she kept tapping the frozen earth in front of her.’ We can see the frailty of such an older woman, and the reader almost feels like she’s downright defenseless against the dangers of the natural world. However, Phoenix proves to be a headstrong woman, continuing up the path. ‘Now and then there was a quivering in the thicket. Old Phoenix said, 'Out of my way, all you foxes, owls, beetles, jack rabbits, coons and wild animals! ... Keep out from under these feet, little bob-whites ... Keep the big wild hogs out of my path. Don 't let none of those come running my direction. I got a long way. ' Under her small black-freckled hand her cane, limber as a buggy whip, would switch at the brush as if to rouse up any hiding things.’ She is fully aware of the potential threats that could cross her path. Despite her frailty, Phoenix proves to hold unwithering bravery as she makes her trek through the rural area. As we continue reading, we find out that Phoenix has made this same trip oh so many times before, growing familiar with what she will have to face next. ‘The path ran up a hill. 'Seem like there is chains about my feet, time I get this far, ' she said, in the voice of argument old people keep to use with themselves. 'Something always take a hold of me on this hill—pleads I should stay. ' After she got to the top, she turned and gave a full, severe look behind her where she had come. 'Up through pines, ' she said at