Eudora Welty creates clues to enhance Phoenix Jackson as a round
character. The reader forms a clear mental picture of Phoenix’s appearance like her skin having, “Numberless branching wrinkles...as though a whole little tree stood in the middle of her forehead.” Also, Welty draws a connection relating Phoenix’s hardships and triumphs to everyone’s struggles in life for the reader to sympathize and relate to. Welty elaborates the unstoppable love and devotion Phoenix Jackson holds for her grandson through her overcoming obstacles of growing senility, deteriorating health with age, and walking a treacherous journey.
Although Phoenix grows senile and might have forgotten her journey's purpose, in her heart the unyielding love for her grandson directs her feet to the medical building. The reader first discovers P
Phoenix’s feet as a compass, direct her trip through a woods of obstacles testing her strength. To pass a barbed-wire fence, Phoenix must “creep and crawl... stretching her fingers like a baby trying to climb the steps”(par 16). Even a small thorny bush becomes a hindrance for old and tired-out Phoenix. Another testament of Phoenix’s courage shines through when she crosses the creek a major triumph for an old granny with only an umbrella stick cane to hold her exhausted body up.So many obstacles try to detain Phoenix but nothing supersedes her determination to prevail against all odds for her grandson’s sake.
Welty illustrates Phoenix’s devotion to overcome her own declining health through obstacles Phoenix encounters on her journey. A black dog comes at Phoenix and “Over she went in the ditch, like a puff of milkweed,” (para 33). Phoenix becomes an immovable frail an
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