English | Summary | Unit Two: Men, Women and
Children
A
Worn Path | Eudora Welty
“A Worn Path” is a story of
unconscious heroism, firm dignity and innocent humour, shown by an old African
American woman Phoenix Jackson. The story decides Jackson’s journey from her
house to the town. She had a grandson, who had been suffering from a throat
pain ever since he swallowed lye. They lived in a village behind the hill.
Their house was a long way from the town Natchez. It was the month of December
and an occasion of Christmas, so she had to go the town to get some medicine
and Christmas gifts for her grandson.
On her way, she had to face several
obstacles and hardships. She climbed up a hill and got down it first. But
before she got down the hill her dress was caught in a thorn bush. However,
with care and struggle, she stood free. Then she came to a stream, having no
bridge over it. Only a log was put over it. Having lifted her skirt up and
shutting her eyes she marched across it safety. While taking a short rest under
a tree, she dreamt a boy offering her a slice of cake. But she got nothing when
she went to take it. She kept on moving and came across a barbed wire fence. By
spreading her knees and stretching her fingers like a baby, she crept and
crawled and got through it. She was able to keep her clothes safe. Possible
meeting with snakes and wild bulls scares her.
She was now in a corn field. She saw
a human like figure. She thought it to be a human being, singing and dancing in
the field. When she heard no sound, she took it to be a ghost. With courage,
she moved toward it and felt its sleeve, and knew it to be a scarecrow. Leaving
the field behind, she arrived at a wagon track which went into a road through a
dense forest.
A wild black dog came out of the
weeds by a ditch. She hit it a little with her stick. Yet the dog pushed her
into the ditch. She could not come out of it. Her senses drifted away. She saw
a dream; a man was ready to help her. When she extended her hand, nothing
happened. After a while; a hunter with a dog in chain found her. While he
lifted her, he dropped a nickel that Phoenix would like to pick up. Her talks
to the hunter show that she was very old, and suffering from loss of memory. On
the other side, the two dogs growled and the hunter rushed to chase the wild
dog. At this time, she picked the coin quite carefully, the way one lifts an
egg from under a sitting hen. The hunter pointed his gun at her but she was not
scared at all.
When she reached the town she asked
a beautiful and seemingly rich lady to tie her shoe laces. The lady did it for
her. Then she went to clinic to get some medicine for her grandson. Although
she had forgotten the clinic, she reached it with her instinctual power and
feeling the path and stairs. In the clinic, an attendant asked her why she had
come there, but she forgot her purpose and remained indifferent. A nurse knew
her and gave medicine for her grandson. The attendant gave her some money.
Thinking of buying a windmill (Christmas gift), she headed toward a gift shop.
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