"A Worn Path" is essentially a love story, the story of
Phoenix Jackson's love for her grandson. The little boy is never seen in the story, and
some critics have suggested that he is no longer living, but both of these observations
do nothing to diminish the power of the narrative. The point of the story is suggested
by its title. Each time Phoenix makes the journey from her home in the country into town
to get the medicine that relieves her grandson's suffering, she follows the same path.
Even when her sight fails, she can follow the path; she has traveled it so many times it
is worn into her memory.
Phoenix is very old and frail, and
the path she follows is hard and dangerous. She climbs a hill; she crosses a creek by
walking over it on a fallen log, carefully maintaining her balance. She climbs through
fences and fights her way through briers. In the story, she makes her journey in the
December cold. Each time Phoenix goes to town, she risks her life--out of
love.
When she arrives in town, Phoenix endures the
humiliation of racism to get the medicine, and she also brings herself to ask for
pennies to add to the nickel she had already stolen from a hunter on the road. Phoenix
had felt bad when she slyly took the nickel:
God watching me the whole time. I come to
stealing.
A woman of great
pride, Phoenix would not have stolen or later asked for money for herself. The money is
not for her. At the story's conclusion, she uses the nickel and the pennies to buy a
little toy for her grandson, imagining his joy at receiving
it.
The point of the story, its theme, is to create a
portrait of love in the person of Phoenix Jackson. Phoenix's love for her grandson is
fierce, tender, and unselfish. Her willingness to risk her life so that the boy won't
suffer, her willingness to beg and steal for him, and her courage in overcoming all
obstacles in her path, both literal and figurative, make the story a moving statement
about the power and the beauty of love.
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