Discuss the characterization of Phoenix in the story "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty.

As the protagonist of "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty,
Phoenix Jackson is much like the other minor characters of the story, a stock
character.  But, she represents the enduring spirit of the oppressed, as her name
indicates.  When, for instance, she sees a buzzard, she calls out to it, "Who you
watching?"  Perceiving something coming towards her later on, Phoenix calls it a
ghost, but realizes it is a mere scarecrow. "I too old.  I ought to be shut up for
good," she laughs at herself as she continues the path to the
clinic.

When the white hunter with his dogs happens upon
her, he lightly ridicules her asking why she is in a ditch.  Phoenix jokes herself,
saying she is lying on her back like a June bug.  Further, she tells the hunter who
suggests that her destination is too far that it is time for her to
go:

"I bound
to go to town, mister....The time come
around"

Then, when the hunter
points his rifle at her, and Phoenix does not move, "Doesn't the gun scare you," the
hunter asks. But, Phoenix quietly replies that she has seen such
before:

"No,
sir, I seen plenty go off closer by, in my day, and for less than what  I
done."

Phoenix does not
waiver from her purpose.  As she arrives, exhausted, at the clinic, Phoenix announces
almost with ceremony, "Here I be."  But, she is treated with disrespect, as an attendant
asks if she is a charity case.  A nurse approaches, speaking of her, using the
deprecatory "Aunt" for an older black woman:

readability="7">

"Oh, that just old Aunt Phoenix...She does't come
for herself--she has a little grandson.  She makes these trips just as regular as
clockwork.  She lives away back off the Old Natchez
Trace."

All the while,
Phoenix merely waits and stares straight ahead with a solemn face that is rigid and
withdrawn. Finally, she explains why she has come, to remeber hergrandson and remember
him "from all others":

readability="9">

"We is the only two left in the world. I am not
going to forget him....I remembers so plain now.  I not going to forget him again, no,
the whole enduring time.  I could tell him from all the others in
creation."

Rising from the
ashes of her exhaustion, Phoenix Jackson takes the medicine for her grandson, along with
the few pennies that the attendant gives her, and sets out for the store to buy her
child a little windmill. "I'll march myself back where he waiting, holding it straight
up in his hand."  Driven by love, Phoenix sets out anew upon the worn path, a character
who represents the power of love and the power of determination. She seems immortal like
her namesake.