A Worn Path

by

Eudora Welty

Grandson Character Analysis

For Phoenix, her grandson represents the future of her family, and perhaps, for black people in general. Though we never get to see him, we do know that he suffers greatly after having swallowed lye a few years earlier as a young boy. The nurse in the city seems to believe that his hopes for the future are rather dim, yet Phoenix is confident that the boy will endure, saying that he “will last.” Phoenix not only wants to give her grandson his needed medicine, it is revealed at the end of the story that she also wants to him a sense of the wonder and possibility in the world in the form of the paper windmill.

Grandson Quotes in A Worn Path

The A Worn Path quotes below are all either spoken by Grandson or refer to Grandson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Race and Class Theme Icon
).
A Worn Path Quotes

“We is the only two left in the world. He suffer and it don’t seem to put him back at all…He going to last…I could tell him from all the others in creation.”

Related Characters: Phoenix Jackson (speaker), Grandson
Related Symbols: Phoenix
Page Number: 148
Explanation and Analysis:

“This is what come to me to do…I going to the store and buy my child a little windmill they sells, made out of paper. He going to find it hard to believe there such a thing in the world.”

Related Characters: Phoenix Jackson (speaker), Grandson
Related Symbols: The Paper Windmill
Page Number: 149
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire A Worn Path LitChart as a printable PDF.
A Worn Path PDF

Grandson Quotes in A Worn Path

The A Worn Path quotes below are all either spoken by Grandson or refer to Grandson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Race and Class Theme Icon
).
A Worn Path Quotes

“We is the only two left in the world. He suffer and it don’t seem to put him back at all…He going to last…I could tell him from all the others in creation.”

Related Characters: Phoenix Jackson (speaker), Grandson
Related Symbols: Phoenix
Page Number: 148
Explanation and Analysis:

“This is what come to me to do…I going to the store and buy my child a little windmill they sells, made out of paper. He going to find it hard to believe there such a thing in the world.”

Related Characters: Phoenix Jackson (speaker), Grandson
Related Symbols: The Paper Windmill
Page Number: 149
Explanation and Analysis: