When she is at the physicianвЂ™s office and has to sit and remember why she is there and how her grandson is. When she sits down beside the creek after crossing by way of a log, the young boy brings her a plate of cake, but the boy and the cake werenвЂ™t really there. Throughout the story is implied that Phoenix is not only old physically but old mentally. The courage she has comes from the love in her heart, not from being stronger or richer than she is. She just stands there looking at them with an unflinching look on her face. Her courage is also shown when the office attendant and nurse keep pointing out that she is a charity case. The courage Phoenix shows standing up to the hunter when he discredits her, implies she is too old to walk as far as he does while he is hunting and points his rifle in her face like she is too old and feeble to take care of herself. Was she given the name Phoenix because she perseveres through all of this and rises up from the ashes to overcome like the mythical Phoenix? Added to this when she picks up a nickel the hunter drops hoping that he wonвЂ™t notice, he does but doesnвЂ™t let on after he comes back with his dog from running off a stray that had gone after her. Her striped dress, apron made of sugar sacks, her untied, unlaced shoes and her cane made of an old umbrella show how impoverished her life is. She doesnвЂ™t give up on the journey no matter what is thrown at her. The bushes, trees and branches that seem to grab at her to keep her from moving on. The forest animals she has to run off and tells them to stay out from under her feet. Phoenix moves along through her journey and her hardships. Phoenix left and settled on going to buy her grandson a paper windmill on the way out of town. The same not so friendly attendant handed her a nickel in the Christmas spirit. The nurse reluctantly brought her the medicine that she had come so far for. A not so friendly office attendant received her at the desk, fortunately a nurse knew who she was. She continues through town, decorated for Christmas, to the physicianвЂ™s office in a tall building to get medicine for her grandson. She makes her way into the town of Natchez, where she stops a lady shopper on the street to ask for assistance in tying her shoe laces. During her journey through the Trace she runs into a hunter and his dog that come her aid after she falls. Phoenix Jackson, an elderly African American woman, traveling on foot through the many terrains of Natchez Trace, Mississippi. A Worn Path by Eudora Welty, a story of perseverance, love, courage, and kindness.

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