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Francisco Caraballo (Student) How far would you go for love to a grandson? A Worn Path, by Eudora Welty “Throat never heals, does it?” “Yes, he swallowed lye” “So the time come around, and I go on another trip for the soothing medicine” How far would you go for love to a grandson? The answer or at least a good explanation of the subject is reflected on the short story titled “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty. A grandmother’s love is not only special but also essential for the live and better development of children. They are normal people with vast experience in different fields of live and are human being with an extraordinary sense of responsibility as well as caring for others. My personal opinion may be shaped by the fact that I was raised by my grandmother since the age of 10. I still have fresh in my mind all the sacrifices “mama gene” used to do in order to make me happy especially when I was sick. During reading this story, I was trying to picture what was being explained by the author Ms. Eudora Welty and I m truly amazed at how well and easy was to understand what was going on in the story and after completing my reading, I have two questions in mind. How far could Ms. Jackson go for love to her grandson? And does the grandson deserve her sacrifice? This story was about an elderly, African American grandmother who had a very poor vision but had a very strong determination for obtaining something that her grandson needed. The name of the grandmother was, Ms. Phoenix Jackson, who, on a dark night of December, starts her journey through the dark pine shadows of a very cold night with only one thing in mind, getting a very important item for her grandson. During her trip, Ms. Jackson talks to herself and at a point she talks to all of the animals that her poor vision allows her to see and even to the ones she does not see but is able to hear. She is warning them about staying out of her way because she has a long way to go before reaching her destination. Next, she stars going up a hill that apparently she was familiar with due to the fact that she claims “Something always take a hold of me on this hill” (Welty). Ms. Welty is so explicit when narrating this story that at some point, I started feeling sorry for Ms. Jackson. I could picture this old, wrinkled, small in size grandmother, which, by the way had a poor vision, trying to make it to her destination. Moreover, I was motivated by the fact that she was very determined to overcome all the obstacles on her way, not only this cold day of December, but it was part of a routine for her because she made that same trip before for the same reason. Once at the top of the hill, Ms. Jackson, very tired and happy to be over with climbing the hill, she is ready to start her way down and said “Now down through oaks”. (Welty). As she starts her way down, and before getting to the bottom of the hill, a little green bush caught up to her dark striped, long dress in several areas so that when she got one side loose, another side was caught. This old lady found out that she was still strong and said to herself, “I wasn’t as old as I thought”, when she found a big branch of a tree on her way and she proceeded to lifting her skirt, leveling her cane, which was made out of an old umbrella, and she marched across finding herself safe on the other side of that big tree branch. The story continues explaining that while Ms. Jackson sits down to rest right underneath a tree that had big branches, she started to day dream and saw a little boy who was handing to her a plate with a slice of marble-cake, this felt so real to her that she said, “That would be acceptable”, but it was nothing real about it as she then extended her arm to grab the plate and realized it was only an illusion. The determined old lady continues her journey and the next task was a very dangerous one as in front of her, there it was a barbed-wire fence ready to destroy her dress and she was not going to allow that so late in the day nor allow this fence to hurt her or stop her, so, she went on to crawl under it and surpassing one more task. Once again, I m amazed at the way Ms. Jackson was ready to think or say positive thoughts or words even when she was in a very compromising situation for her age and she found some time to thank the “good lord” for not been the season for bulls and also the fact that snakes curl up and sleep in the winter. Ms. Jackson’s next big task was to pass a huge dead corn field, which, was higher than her. While walking and maybe caused by her poor vision, she thought she was seeing a ghost, but, it was only a big scarecrow. After she realized what it was, she invited the empty body to dance with her; and found some sense of humor in this situation when she blamed her confusion or illusion on the fact that she was very old and as expressed by her, “My senses is gone”. (Welty). Now, for the first time during her trip, her task does not involve a plant but an animal, when suddenly as was walking quietly, a black dog came out of nowhere and she was not ready, luckily, it was enough time and when the dog came to her, she hit him a little and as with the force she used, she fell into the ditch. Once again, Ms. Jackson talks to herself and say “Old woman” (Welty). As the black dog was just there smiling at her, a white male hunter came along and helped her up as he asked her several questions about her, but he was really surprised when she told him where she was coming from and where she was headed. After another series of questions, the old lady was very serious when the hunter implied that “Colored people! Wouldn’t miss going to town to see Santa Claus!” at that point, the hunter dropped a nickel and the old lady bent forward to get it and then he pointed his gun at her and asked if she was scared to what she said no and then they parted ways. After a long walk, the old lady was finally entering the town and she figured it out when a group of black children whirled around her and when she started seeing all the lights decorating the city symbolizing Christmas. Apparently this old lady was very careful about her appearance because during her trip, one of the things she was more concerned about was to make sure her dress did not get destroyed and every time she had to go pass a bush or a fence, she would pull up her dress and, when at the town, she realized that her shoes were untied and she stopped a white lady and asked her for the favor then kept going. The author, Ms. Eudora Welty makes a lot of emphasis on race and I agree with Greg Barnhisel when he says the following; “However, it is with race that any discussion of Welty’s story must begin. Welty comes from Mississippi, in many ways the most notoriously troubled of Southern states” (Barnhisel) The story continues by the old lady approaching the doctor’s office. I can just imagine Ms. Jackson’s sense of relief, after coming up the stairs, finally reaching her destination; she is sweating, tired and for a moment she paused, while the attendant was assuming she was a charity case and was very rude to her by yelling and asking what did she want in a very rude way until, a nurse came out and said, “oh, that’s just old aunt Phoenix”. This nurse knows that Ms. Jackson made the same trip every so often to get a soothing medicine for a throat medical condition her grandson was suffering from. After a time where the old grandmother does not speak at all and was motionless, maybe from all the walking and adventures that had taken place moments prior to her arrival to the doctor’s office, she admits that she had forgot the reason for her visit and blamed it at the fact that she was an uneducated, old woman. She then proceeded to talk about her grandson and explained to the nurse that he was not dead and he was just the same and that from time to time his throat was so bad that he wasn’t able to neither swallow nor breathe normally. This story was written in the year 1941 and apparently, during those times, transportation was difficult or challenging. I get this impression because the nurse made emphasis and assured that she would always get the medicine as long as she would go to get it. After receiving the medicine, Ms. Jackson was very thankful, looked at the bottle of medicine and slowly placed it into her apron’s pocket. Before she left, the nurse offered some money by saying to her, “It’s Christmas time Grandma, could I give you a few pennies out of my purse?” (Welty). The nurse gave her five pennies (a nickel) and she put it in the palm of her hand together with the one she had gotten from the hunter back on the road and she was thinking of her grandson happiness and joy when he sees a windmill she was planning to buy for him. Ms. Jackson slowly turned around and started her way down the stairs going to her grandson who was all alone at home waiting for her. As expressed by me at the beginning of this beautiful story, it was incredibly easy to understand Ms. Welty’s way of writing. It was not surprising to me to know that this was based on a true story. Welty has said that she was inspired to write the story after seeing an old African American woman walking alone across the southern landscape (A Worn path). It was the end of this story and after being raised by a grandmother myself, my answer to the second question posted at the beginning of this paper; does the grandson deserve her sacrifice? My answer is that Ms. Jackson’s love for her grandson was not in return of anything nor she was expecting anything back, she, like most grandmothers, loved her grandson for who he was.