A Worn Path

In the short story "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty, "she was very old and small and she walked slowly in the dark pine shadows" (449). When I read this story I could not believe the long journey this old woman makes. "The woods were deep and still and the path ran uphill" (449). Pheonix I think has a lot of courage and wisdom as she makes her journey alone, and the fact that she is a black woman in the 1940's too. "The doctor said as long as you came to get it, you can have it" (454). Back in those days if you could get something for free, you were going to make the trip no matter what. Because people had to work so hard for their simple pleasures, and people played the race card too. If you were black, you weren't worth anybody's time. Although she needed it for a loved one, I too would make that trip even if it would break me. It sounds like she didn't have much except what she was finding on the trip, along the way. "I came to stealing" (452). Some people will do what they need to do to survive. It sounds to me like Pheonix is his only family. He is lucky to have her.