“A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty

After reading Eudora Welty’s short story, “A Worn Path,” a question became apparent. This question was whether the grandson of the main character and focus of the story, Phoenix Jackson, was actually alive, or whether he had died a few years ago. Personally, I believe that Phoenix’s grandson had died a few years ago. First of all, during the story, Phoenix does have a hallucination of a boy giving her some cake. This proves that she does have some tendencies to imagine things, and the loss of her grandson could have sparked the illusion of a boy. Furthermore, in the story it mentions that the boy had been in the same condition for two to three years at this point. Phoenix’s grandson had swallowed some lye, an acidic substance, and it is much more likely that he would have either gotten better or died after such a long period of time. Also, the fact that Phoenix claims, “My little grandson, he is just the same,” (Welty, 229) may represent that she still sees him the way he was before he died, unchanged after two years. Moreover, when a nurse asks Phoenix how her grandson is, she is unresponsive for a few minutes. In my opinion, this lack of recognition or comprehension supports that her grandson is gone and that he is now only a figment of her imagination.