A Worn Path Summary

At a Glance

A frail, elderly African-American woman, Phoenix Jackson walks

many miles from her home in the country to a medical clinic in
Natchez, Mississippi, to secure medicine for her grandson.

Almost blind, Phoenix follows a rugged path through the countryside

that takes her to a road into the city. She knows the way by heart,
having made the trip many times.

On her journey, Phoenix demonstrates great courage and determination

as she overcomes every obstacle in her way and encounters a hunter
who points a gun at her.

Reaching the clinic, Phoenix is treated with disrespect as a charity

case, but she endures the humiliation in order to get the medicine that
will relieve her grandsons suffering.

After forgetting briefly why she has come to the clinic, Phoenix leaves
with the medicine and goes to buy him a paper windmill, imagining
how happy he will be when she gives him the toy.

- Susan Hurn.

Summary (Comprehensive Guide to Short Stories,

Critical Edition)
Phoenix Jackson makes her biannual visit to Natchez, walking for half a day in
December to reach the medical clinic at which she receives, as charity, soothing
medicine for her grandson. Having swallowed lye, he has suffered without healing for
several years. Phoenix has made the journey enough times that her path to Natchez
seems a worn path. Furthermore, part of that is the old Natchez trace, a road worn
deep into the Mississippi landscape by centuries of travelers returning northeast after
boating down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
Phoenix is the oldest person she knows, though she does not know exactly how old
she is, only that she was too old to go to school at the end of the Civil War and
therefore never learned to read. Mainly because of her age, the simple walk from her
remote home into Natchez is a difficult enough journey to take on epic proportions.
She fears delays caused by wild animals getting in her way: foxes, owls, beetles, jack
rabbits, and raccoons. She comfortably reflects that snakes and alligators hibernate in
December. Thorn bushes and barbed-wire fences, log bridges and hills are major

barriers for her. The cornfield she must cross from her initial path to a wagon road is a
maze, haunted to her nearsightedness by a ghost that turns out to be a scarecrow. She
must also struggle against her tendency to slip into a dream and forget her task, as
when she stops for a rest and dreams of a boy offering her a piece of cake. Her
perception of these obstacles emphasizes her intense physical, mental, and moral
effort to complete this journey.
Despite the difficulty of her trip, she clearly enjoys her adventure. She talks happily to
the landscape, warning the small animals to stay safely out of her way and showing
patience with the thorn bush, which behaves naturally in catching her dress. She
speaks good-humoredly of the dangers of the barbed wire. Her encounter with the
ghost ends in a short, merry dance with the scarecrow, a celebration that she has not
yet met death. Difficult and important as her trip is, she extracts pleasure from it,
which further reveals the depth of goodness in her character.
On the trace, a dog knocks her off her path, leaving her unable to rise until she is
rescued by a young hunter. Though he helps her, he is also somewhat threatening. He
is hunting quail, birds with whom she has spoken on her walk. When the hunter
accidentally drops a nickel, she spots it quickly. She artfully diverts his attention by
getting him to chase off the strange dog, so she can retrieve this nickel. Her behavior
contrasts ironically with the hunters. She feels guilty about taking the nickel, thinking
of a bird that flies by as a sign that God is watching her. Meanwhile the hunter
blusters and boasts of his skill and power. He assumes that her long and difficult walk
is frivolous in intent, that she is going to town to see Santa Claus. The contrast
between their perceptions and the readers judgments tends to magnify the difficulty
and the goodness of Phoenix, emphasizing especially her true courage in contrast to
his foolish bravado.
In Natchez, she must find her way by memory, because she cannot read, to the right
building and the right office in the building in order to get the medicine. There she
encounters the impatience of clinic personnel who are acutely conscious that she is a
charity case. Having found the right place, she momentarily forgets why she has
come. Her effort and concentration have been so great in making the journey that she
has lost sight of its end. When she has the medicine, one worker offers her some
pennies for Christmas. She quickly responds that she would like a nickel. Then it
becomes clear that she has a specific need for ten cents. She announces that she will
buy her grandson a pinwheel and reflects, He going to find it hard to believe there
such a thing in the world. Ill march myself back where he waiting, holding it straight
up in this hand.
More Content: Summary (hide)
A Worn Path is a simple story about a difficult journey. The protagonist, Phoenix
Jackson, is an elderly African American woman who lives in the country. On a cold
December day, she is walking to town along the path that she always takes. Along the
way, she encounters various obstacles: thorny bushes, a creek, a barbed-wire fence, a
swamp. Then she waves her cane to drive away a dog, loses her balance, and falls.
Fortunately, a white man happens along and helps her up. Without knowing it, he
drops a nickel, and she pockets it, though she feels guilty about stealing.

After arriving in town, Phoenix gets a lady to lace up her shoe, explaining that she
must be properly dressed to go into a big building. Once in the doctors office, she has
to be reminded that she has come to get medicine for her grandson, who swallowed
lye several years before. The receptionist offers her some pennies, and Phoenix hints
that five of them would be a nickel. With her two nickels, Phoenix will buy her
grandson a little paper windmill. The story ends with her making her way laboriously
back down the stairs.
In A Worn Path, the author utilizes the conventions of the heroic journey to describe
the adventures of a woman who is unaware of her own heroism. The simple style that
Welty uses for her account of Phoenix Jacksons odyssey makes the story even more
effective and poignant.

Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" depicts the journey of Phoenix Jackson, an elderly
black woman. At first, this journey appears to not be for any apparent reason. Phoenix
travels over hills and through the woods, enduring multiple hardships, encounters
with disrespect, and moments of loneliness. By the end of the story, the reader realizes
that Phoenix's trip does have a goal. She walks to get medicine for her sick grandson
who "swallowed lye"(p. 105). The theme that runs through the story is that Phoenix
will endure hardship, disrespect, and even loneliness for the love of her grandson.
Phoenix faces two different types of hardship, one is being the physical aspects such
as her age, short-sightedness, and senility. There's no doubt that Phoenix is well up in
her years. When reaching that golden age, there are many obstacles to overcome. The
body starts to change in ways that makes us depend on other physical aspects. Welty
leaves no doubt in the reader's mind that Phoenix is old, and that she has the hardships
that accompany advancing age. One example of many in the writing is, "Her skin had
a pattern all its own of numberless branching wrinkles" (p. 98). Because she continues
to think of the health of her grandson, the path to town becomes nothing more than a
walk in the park. Welty implies that the memories she has of her grandson seem so
real that not even her physical disabilities can keep her from making the journey.
One major physical hardship is the fact that Phoenix is most likely blind. "Her eyes
were blue with age," and "She carried a thin, small cane made from an umbrella, and
with this she kept tapping the frozen earth in front of her" (p. 98). The fact that she
keeps persistently tapping the earth in front of her could only indicate one thing: that
she is visually impaired. Welty conveys to us that Phoenix may not be completely
blind, but she has to be substantially impaired to keep tapping her cane in an irritating
manner. Someone who is even remotely visually impaired should not be traveling in
the forest. However, because of the love Phoenix has for her grandson, she keeps her
goal in her mind's sight and does not need her eyesight.
Phoenix also suffers from a problem that often plagues people at an old age, senility.
For instance, she has hallucinations. "But she sat down to rest... She did not dare to
close her eyes and when a little boy brought her a plate with a slice of marble cake on
it she spoke to him. 'That would be acceptable,' she said. But when she went to take it
there was just her own hand in the air" (p. 99). This was just one time in the story
where Phoenix talks to herself or has hallucinations. Welty leaves us with the
impression that Phoenix often behaves this way. Although she may suffer from
senility due to old age, Phoenix does not allow these hallucinations to stop her from
getting to town to get medicine for her grandson. This proves how much she loves
him.
The other type of hardship Phoenix has to contend with is the burden of the trip itself
and the obstacles she has to overcome to get to town. The weather itself is
unfortunate, "It was December - a bright frozen day in the early morning" (p. 98). But
for Phoenix, her grandson is sick and his illness favors no season. She has to endure
the deadness of winter. Welty reveals through Phoenix that when it comes to the
health of a loved one, no season has sympathy.

Since the trip is far into the valley and through the woods, Phoenix leaves early in the
morning to get a head start on the day. Phoenix just comes out of the woods to a steep
hill and says, " Seems like there is chains about my feet, time I get this far" (p. 99).
Although Phoenix is a strong willed woman, the hill is like a mountain trying to break
her will. "Something always take a hold of me on this hill--pleads I should stay" (p.
99). Welty shows how Phoenix endures the hardship and pain of climbing the hill and
does not let it keep her from making the trip. The reader sees that even when the pain
is excruciating she keeps climbing that mountain of a hill because she loves her
grandson so much.
Phoenix passes through many areas where dark and scary animals live. " A pleasure I
don't see no two-headed snake coming around that tree, where it came once" (p. 100)
she exclaims, remembering one summer she had to watch for such creatures. This is
not surprising, since down in the southern part of United States there are many deadly
snakes. It is obvious that because Phoenix lives so far back in the woods, no help
would reach her in time if a snake bit her, and death would creep in. Through
Phoenix, Welty shows that not even deadly snakes or animals can keep her from
seeking the medicine needed for her beloved grandson.
Along her journey, Phoenix has three exchanges with people, and everyone she meets
is white. Each of them treats her with the same disrespectful attitude, although to
varying degrees of severity. Though she is treated so poorly, Phoenix keeps her eye on
her purpose, getting medicine for the grandson she loves so much.
The first person Phoenix encounters is a hunter who pulls her up out of the ditch she
has fallen in. His surprise at finding her there is evident when he exclaims, "Well,
Granny!" (p. 101). He continues to call her Granny, hardly a respectful term for
someone he does not know. When Phoenix tells him why she is out, he first assumes
she has no reason, that she is not getting "anything for [her] trouble" (p. 102). He
rudely tells her that the only reason she is heading to town is to see Santa Claus, since
all "old colored people" (p. 102) want to. Toward the end of the exchange, the hunter
advises Phoenix to "stay home, and nothing will happen to you" (p. 103), indicating
that she has no business being anywhere but home. Welty indicates that Phoenix says
nothing in response to the hunter's disrespectful statements, but continues to think
only of her grandson.
The hunter is disrespectful in other ways. He asks Phoenix's age (p. 102), another
inappropriate question for a new acquaintance. He lies to her, telling her that he would
"give [her] a dime if [he] had any money" (p. 103). Phoenix even knows he is lying,
since she picked up a nickel that fell from his purse already.
After running a dog off, the hunter returns to Phoenix and points his gun right at her
(p. 102), as if he knows that he could kill the old black woman and no one would care.
He does not even stop to think that a small child, loved greatly by Phoenix, waits for
her at home. Welty has endowed Phoenix with the strength to be undaunted by the
hunter's threats, and to continue on her way to get her grandson's medicine. She will
survive for him.
The second person Phoenix converses with is the most civil of them all. While
walking in town, Phoenix stops a woman and asks her to tie her shoes for her. It is
clearly Christmas time, because the lady has packages. Although the woman's initial
response to Phoenix is rude, "What do you want, Grandma?" (p. 103), she ties
Phoenix's shoes. Perhaps if it was not a holiday time of year, the lady would not have

been so obliging, but this fact does not stop Phoenix from getting to the doctor's office
with laced shoes. Welty suggests that Phoenis does what she has to do, enduring
disrespect by asking a "nice lady to tie up [her] shoe" (p. 103), if it means that the
grandson she dearly loves gets his medicine.
Phoenix finally arrives at her destination and is greeted not politely, but with, "A
charity case, I suppose" (p. 104). The attendant at the desk assumes that Phoenix has
been in before, and demands that Phoenix speak up and give her personal information.
Asked if she is deaf when she momentarily does not respond, Phoenix is identified by
a nurse as "old Aunt Phoenix" (p. 104), another term meant to be disrespectful. The
nurse's tone seems much more sympathetic at first, as she offers Phoenix a seat.
However, she too soon becomes frustrated with Phoenix's lost memory, telling
Phoenix she must not "take up our time this way" (p. 104). The nurse refers to
Phoenix's grandson as "an obstinate case" (p. 105), and not as a little boy loved by his
grandmother. Phoenix is hushed by the nurse, who marks "charity" (p. 105) in her
book. The nurse then makes sure that Phoenix understands that her grandson will get
the medicine only as long as she is able to come for it. Since it is Christmas time, the
nurse offers to give Phoenix "a few pennies out of my purse" (p. 105). It is obvious
that normally, the nurse would not think Phoenix worth giving money to.
All of the disrespect that Phoenix endures at the doctor's office has a purpose. It is the
price that Phoenix must pay for the continued health of her grandson. Welty conveys
in many ways that Phoenix knows that if she does not get his medicine, he will die. It
is easy to see that Phoenix loves him too much to let that happen.
Ribbons of loneliness contribute to the theme of "A Worn Path." The very opening
line denotes the loneliness and starkness of a cold December morning "far out in the
country" (p. 98). In that first paragraph, other phrases seem to establish the loneliness
of the old woman. She moves like the "pendulum in a grand-father clock" (p. 98),
which steadily marks time alone. At the end of the first paragraph, Welty perhaps
refers to the legend of the Phoenix, the bird who regenerates and rises up out of its
own ashes at the appointed time. The noises Phoenix Jackson is making are compared
to the "chirping of a solitary little bird" (p. 98). Welty's entry into the story sets the
scene for a depiction of the loneliness Phoenix experiences on the journey she makes
for the sole purpose of getting medicine for her grandson.
More feelings of loneliness are expressed by descriptions of the scenery through
which Phoenix passes on her trip. The "woods are deep and still" (p. 98), and sounds
of the mourning dove, a single bird's theme (p. 99), provide background music for
Phoenix's journey. The fields she traipses through are "quiet and bare" (p. 101) and
Phoenix herself declares that she is walking in the sleep of the abandoned cabins and
trees with dead leaves (p. 101). Even the alligators are not accompanying Phoenix,
and she tells them they should "sleep on, and blow your bubbles" (p. 101).
This world Welty shows is one that Phoenix commits herself to for the good of her
grandson. It is cold, dead, and very lonely. The reader knows that surely, Phoenix
would never take such a lonesome path repeatedly if she did not love her grandson so
much.
Although Phoenix does have her grandson, many parts of Welty's short story suggest
that Phoenix has been effectively alone in times of strife before. She has a voice that
she reserves to use when scolding herself, suggesting that she has occasion to use it
often (p. 99). She speaks of waiting to get by a two-headed snake in the summertime

(p. 100). When asking the lady on the street to tie her shoe, Phoenix pleads her case
by explaining that she "can't lace 'em with a cane" (p. 103). This statement tells the
reader that there is no one else who can lace Phoenix's shoes for her. Although Welty
shows that Phoenix's life and path are lonely, Phoenix endures in her quest to help her
grandson because she loves him.
The saddest parts of the story are those which explain the depth of the loneliness of
Phoenix's life. While resting during her walk, she begins to daydream of an easier life,
one with marble-cake on a plate and a little boy to serve her (p. 99). Of course, it is
just a hallucination, and Phoenix moves along the path alone. She explains to the
scarecrow she thinks might be a ghost that she has "heard of nary death close by" (p.
100), indicating that loved ones have deserted her in their deaths long ago. Most heart
wrenching is the simple picture Phoenix paints for the nurse and attendant of her
"little grandson, waiting by himself" (p. 105). Phoenix resolves to use the
money she has to buy her only companion a windmill (p. 105). The life she lives with
her grandson is plainly lonely and difficult, but also profoundly loving. Welty makes
it clear that, if not for the grandson Phoenix loves so much, her life would be too
lonely to continue. Phoenix does make the trip in all its loneliness however, which is
proof that she loves her ailing grandson.
Phoenix Jackson's journey paints a portrait of serious hardship, disrespect, and
loneliness. Through it all, though, Phoenix always remembers the true purpose of the
trip. She knows that she needs to live through the hardships, tolerate the disrespect,
and endure the loneliness for the sake of her grandson. Love could not possibly be
expressed more completely.