An old woman endures a long journey to get medicine for her grandson. Phoenix endures many obstacles throughout her journey. "Seem like there is chains about my feet, time I get this far" (Welty paragraph 5) She is describing her weakness and how hard it is for her to walk this far. The author also compares her age and her motions to an "old grandfather clock with a pendulum that sways from side to side with a balanced heaviness" ( paragraph 1). The authors use of such heavy words like "chains" and "grandfather" gives us the picture of this old woman teetering back and forth slowly but still going forward. The clock poses as a double meaning here. One for the fact that it is a grandfather, not just any clock, and two for the fact that grand clocks like that keep time for centuries without stopping. This is a very good comparison for the perseverance shown in Phoenix. .
The old woman is of lower class and the author shows this by repeating the same detail of the woman's "red rag". This detail helps with understanding the irony when Phoenix stops an upper class "white" woman to lace up her shoe. This is symbolic in that she, being of such a low class, would ever ask a white woman to tie her shoe. Phoenix doesn't see her color as being a factor in her presence. She feels as though she I on the same level as the white folk. When Phoenix walks in to the hospital and the attendant says " A charity case I suppose", (paragraph 70) she just looks over the attendant's head as if the attendant " where a fly bothering her (paragraph 75). .
"I know you old colored people! Wouldn't miss going to town to see Santa Claus!" (paragraph 45). This line alone has many symbols. The fact that the young hunter calls her "colored" shows that he is putting her in the lower class of society. He puts her even lower by saying that the "old colored" people wouldn't miss out on the giving that comes along with the Christmas season.