A Worn Path: Quotes by Character

‘Seem like there is chains about my feet, time I get this far,’ she said, in the voice of argument old people keep to use with themselves. ‘Something always take a hold of me on this hill—pleads I should stay.’

This moment, as Phoenix faces the first big obstacle in the form of the hill, begins to create a picture of just how difficult this journey is for Phoenix. The use of the phrase “chains about my feet” is evocative of the fact that Phoenix was born into slavery, suggesting that it’s not just a metaphor, that she knows the toil of walking in chains. This also establishes that Phoenix is no stranger to overcoming such turmoil. Though the path ahead of her is difficult, riddled with hurdles, she has survived much worse in her life.

‘Now comes the trial,’ said Phoenix. Putting her right foot out, she mounted the log and shut her eyes. Lifting her skirt, leveling her cane fiercely before her like a festival figure in some parade, she began to march across. Then she opened her eyes and she was safe on the other side.

‘I wasn't as old as I thought,’ she said.

This scene occurs after Phoenix has already been slowed by a thorny bush catching her dress. Phoenix now faces the log over the creek with some trepidation, but she bravely ventures forth. Despite the fact that the task is a “trial,” Phoenix not only secures safe passage for herself, but has an almost celebratory air as she does it. She invokes a “festive figure” and remarks on the fact that her age isn’t slowing her down as much as she fears. This scene displays one of Phoenix’s fundamental traits: though she faces a treacherous journey, she often meets challenges with humor and grace.

The Hunter

He gave another laugh, filling the whole landscape. ‘I know you old colored people! Wouldn't miss going to town to see Santa Claus!’

But something held Old Phoenix very still. The deep lines in her face went into a fierce and different radiation. Without warning, she had seen with her own eyes a flashing nickel fall out of the man's pocket onto the ground.

When the hunter encounters Phoenix in the ditch, he at first greets her with what appears to be kindness and helps her out of her predicament. In this moment, though, the tenor of their interaction begins to shift. The hunter makes a racist assumption about why Phoenix is traveling to town, deciding that she wants to see Santa Claus. This infantilizing generalization is perhaps as close to the opposite of the truth as could be. At the same time, Phoenix has spied an opportunity in the hunter’s lost nickel. She immediately enters into a mode of fierce determination, aiming to get the nickel to buy a gift for her grandson.

The man came back, and his own dog panted about them. ‘Well, I scared him off that time,’ he said, and then he laughed and lifted his gun and pointed it at Phoenix.

She stood straight and faced him.

‘Doesn't the gun scare you?’ he said, still pointing it.

Though their interaction began amicably, at least on the surface, the hunter returns from getting rid of the black dog with a casually menacing air. He knows that Phoenix has taken the nickel from the ground, and in raising the gun and pointing it at her, he reminds her that she could lose her life for as little as a nickel and that he would have no qualms about killing her. Phoenix, for her part, does not flinch, and instead regards him with a steely determination, until eventually he puts the gun down and she leaves with the nickel in her apron.

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