A Worn Path Persistence
A Worn Path - PersistenceAn author by the name of M. C. Richards once stated the value of persistence. This statement reads, “A knowledge of the path cannot be substituted for putting one foot in front of the other.” In other words, persistence is more important than knowing the path on which one is walking. Because of persistence, humankind has long evolved from the primitives of the Stone Age. Even now, humankind struggles against war, bigotry, and poverty. This idea of persistence is evident in Eudora Welt’s “A Worn Path.” In this work, the tale of the unstoppable love and care of an old woman for her grandchild is illustrated.
This unstoppable love and care of an old Negro woman, Phoenix Jackson, was illustrated through her journey to the city of Natchez to get medicine for her chronically ill grandson. Because of her old age, Phoenix Jackson struggles through this journey that the young could easily travel through. She began her journey on “a bright frozen day in the early morning” in December. Phoenix Jackson was “very old and small,” and walked like “the pendulum in a grandfather clock” ever so carefully with “a thin, small cane made from an umbrella (p764).” She wore a “dark striped dress… and an equally long apron of bleached sugar sack, with a full pocket: all neat and tidy (p764).” Her eyes were “blue with age” and her skin had “a pattern all its own of numberless branching wrinkles as though a whole little tree stood in the middle of her forehead. (p764).” As she began her journey, she talked to herself and warned all the “foxes, owls, beetles, jack rabbits, coons, and wild animals” to keep out from under her feet for she had a long way to go. She was determined to go down that path despite anything that might come between her and getting the medicine for her grandson. This showed that her body may be worn out, but the attitude that she took and desire that she had in order to get the medicine for her grandson was not.
In addition to her failing health, she faced other obstacles along her worn path. One such obstacle she encountered was a thorn bush. After she traveled downhill, she soon found herself caught in a thorn bush. Talking to the bush, she stated that the thorns were doing their appointed work and that her old eyes thought it was a “pretty little green bush.” However, she managed to free herself. This was the first of four obstacles she faced.
Another obstacle she faced was a barbed-wire fence blocking her path. There she had to “creep and crawl, spreading her knees and stretching...
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