A Worn Path: Obstacles

In the short stories A Worn Path by Eudora Welty and The Jilting of Granny Weatherall by Katherine Anne Porter, both women overcame several obstacles. In A Worn Path Phoenix Jackson faced obstacles such as her old age, physical challenges, and how others viewed her. Granny faced obstacles such as dying, feeling betrayed from her children, and disappointment in her love life. In A Worn Path by Eudora Welty an elderly African American woman named Phoenix Jackson picks a cold December day to make yet another perilous journey to a near by city to get medicine for her ailing grandson. On the way this old woman faces many obstacles, both natural and man-made. Phoenix draws upon her perseverance and willingness to sacrifice herself to help her throughout her journey, but it is the undying love for her grandson that truly guides and drives her to her final goal. She is described as being a very old woman. "Her eyes were blue with age. Her skin had a pattern all its own of numberless branching wrinkles and as though a whole little tree stood in the middle of her forehead, but a golden color run underneath, and the two knobs of her cheeks were illuminated by a yellow burning under the dark (Welty 386). These all show an indication of her old age. Also, her loss of memory indicates her old age. It was only until Phoenix reached the doctor's office she remembered why she went on her journey. "My grandson. It was my memory had left me. There I sat and forgot why I made my trip"(Welty 394). Another character in the story was a white man who was a hunter. When Phoenix falls in the ditch, he helps her out of the ditch. Even though the hunter helps Phoenix, he still poses as a threat to her, because it seems he did not want her to finish her journey. This is made apparent when he states, "Why, that's too far! That's as far as I walk when I come out myself, and I get something for my trouble"(Welty 391). In addition, like her name, Phoenix seems ageless. When she stops

Cited: Page Bartel, Roland. "Life and Death in Eudora Welty 's "A Worn Path. '" USA: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1998. 45-48 Kirsznerand and Mandell, Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Earl McPeek. USA: Harcout, Inc., 2001, 1997,1994,1991. 388-395 Porter, Katherine Anne. "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall." Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Fort Worth: Harcourt, 2000.