Blog Response to “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty

I read this story several years ago in an English class and admired it then. However, reading it again has greatly expanded my appreciation of Welty’s writing.  Though much of the story affected me as I was reading it, creating a tension of whether or Phoenix would make it to her destination, of the strange contrast of help and danger the hunter seemed to represent, it was the end that created the deepest response in me. As I’m sure Welty intended, the moment we find out Phoenix’s motivation for walking to town, her drive to get the medicine for her grandson, the story is altered. Welty instilled deep feelings of helplessness, determination, and fear in me by combining three fairly subtle revelations at the end. The first being that when Phoenix reaches the doctor’s office, having worked so hard to overcome the difficulty of the trip, she has a moment of memory loss, of dementia, an instant that more than all her physical trials, illustrates the vulnerability of her age and position. “My grandson,” Phoenix finally says after several moments of unresponsiveness, “It was my memory had left me. Then I sat and forgot why I made my long trip” (Welty 1549). Even the love for her grandson, that has driven her so far, is something that Phoenix can lose and forget. Secondly, Welty has Phoenix describe the degree of severity of her grandson’s illness saying that at times he’s “not able to swallow. He not get his breath. He not able to help himself” (1549). This illustrates the reason for Phoenix’s determination, and makes you feel the gravity of the situation, how desperate both she and her grandson are for her to succeed in making her journey there and back. Lastly, to complete the emotion that this scene creates, Welty has the nurse states that “The doctor said as long as you came to get it, you could have it” (1549). In this moment we realize that there is no other option. Not only do we now see how damaging the grandson’s illness can be, but we see that there is no other way for him to acquire the medicine he needs. Everything depends on his grandmother being able to make the trip. Everything depends upon a woman who is aging, who has moments that she cannot remember her own life. It is so powerful a combination of clues. Reading it, I felt the sense of the inevitable that hangs over both their futures, that at a certain moment Phoenix will no longer be able to achieve this feat, and when that moment comes the worst may happen for them both.