"A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty is a story about an old black woman, extremely hardened by the life she led. Everything about her, form her clothes to her attitude screams survival. The hardships she is forced to endure in her quest for her grandson's medicine are symbolic the things she had to deal with every day of her life life.
Old Phoenix reminds me of my own grandmother. Sometimes we forget how different the lives of that generation were. Recently my fiance and I were laughing about getting caught stealing as children. Something all kids go through. And my grandmother, who overheard the conversation, told a story of her own. How at 11 years old, during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine she got caught stealing potatoes from the field by a German soldier. He laughed at her and let her go, but a week later her next door neighbor was executed for the same offense. Experiences like these is what shaped that hardened survivalist mentality we see in old Phoenix.
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3 comments:
Thanks for sharing your experience. Phoenix is indeed a hardened woman but as her name suggests, she keeps rising from the ashes of her life.
You're on the right track in your first par., re much of the story--see my comments on previous blogs, as noted on the class blog homepage.
dang that is deep about your grandma and her neighbor. that bit of history hit me kind of hard because i just watched the anne frank play at school. back to the story at hand i love the way you touched on "grannys" strentgh and way of survival and called the man out for what he and society was.
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