"A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty: Analysis

Motherhood is expressed in an unusual manner in "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty.

Phoenix is described in detail as an old, poor ragged lady who talks aloud to herself and to images of her overactive imagination as she slowly walks along a dirty and difficult path that she is all too familiar with.

She appears delusional as well as extremely self-sacrificing throughout the short story.

She talks to the animals as if they could understand her, telling them to stay out of her way, among other gibberish.

Alternately, she mumbles directions to her self.

When she comes across a scarecrow, she thinks that she is seeing a ghost.

Phoenix goes to great lengths to obtain a nickel.

This shows how poor and desperate she is.

When she sees a nickel fall out of a man's pocket, she distracts him by having him send his dog after another dog, while she carefully steals the nickel.

She seems very impressed later on as well, when the nurse gives her a nickel.

She stares at the two nickels side by side for a while.

After finally arriving at her destination, she seems at a loss to express herself and to remember the reason that she came.

After being directly asked about her ailing grandson, she finally remembers that the reason for her visit was to retrieve medicine for him.

In the story, we never actually see or hear from the grandson.

All these factors may lead one to wonder whether the boy in fact exists, and if he does, whether he is alive or dead.

She has clearly been there before, and convinced the doctor and nurse that her grandson is still sick as a result of swallowing lye a couple of years earlier.

She tells them a story about his symptoms and how she hopes that he will get better.

Yet at the same time, she is voicing her resolve that she will not forget him again.

She may be deluding herself about his existence, or deluding herself that he is alive when he is not.

Perhaps she does all this traveling merely as a means to keep herself busy as well as to socialize with the outside world.

She fools herself into thinking up a purpose in her life that she wishes she had.

She lives in a dream world, a world of wishes and ghosts and imaginary beings.

If in fact the boy is dead, she is in denial of it.

It is hard to know whether she is fooling herself or fooling the world.

She certainly is unusual and sees things that aren't there.

Her actions may be due to senility and old age, or they may be a defense mechanism to give her purpose in a life where there is none.

It is possible that she knows the truth but convinces herself otherwise, or that she is aware of his non-existence but rather tries to convince everyone else otherwise, so that they pity her and give her attention.

Click here to read a comparison and contrast of Phoenix from Welty's "A Worn Path" and Mum from Drabble's "The Gifts Of War"

If in fact the boy is alive and sickly as she claims, she certainly is admirable for the great sacrifices that she goes through for him.

She certainly does a lot for him.

By leaving him alone she is not showing abandonment but rather going to great sacrifice to get him his medicine.

She is clearly poor and elderly, emotionally sick herself.

Yet she travels a great distance and seeks the charity and good will of the doctor and nurse to get the medicine which will hopefully sustain him.

It is a wonder that he survived so long, living in poor and wretched circumstances with a grandmother that is very devoted to him but is old and must leave him alone to get his medicine.

She does go to great lengths to get his medicine, and she tries her best, but while she is on this long and perilous trip, her sickly grandson is all by himself.

Children have a hard time taking care of themselves, especially if they are sickly and living in poor circumstances.

It is true that she has no choice but to leave him alone to get his medicine, yet that doesn't change the fact that he is alone and sickly in a poor residence.