A Worn Path

"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.