Comparrison between Granny Weatherall and Phoenix Jackson.
Those are just a few words that some might use to .
describe these two ladies. Both lives were filled with tragedy: from soon-to-be .
husbands not showing up to the alter, and grandson's life is unquestionable from a .
drink of lye. From heartbreak to prejudice, I will portray these two women and tell .
you just how much Phoenix Jackson and Granny Weatherall are alike and how .
much they differ.
.
Phoenix makes a periodic journey into town to obtain medicine for her .
grandson, who has swallowed lye and will probably never wholly recover. .
Phoenix has made this journey so often that she can do it by a kind of interior .
radar, and thus her mind is free to wander while her feet stay on track. Welled up .
inside Phoenix is a lifetime of hardship, brought about partially by her role in .
society: she is an old black woman in a white world, and she is thus cast into an .
inferior position in a world that considers her as a unimportant gnat. A hunter she .
meets treats her patronizingly, called her "Granny" and assuming that she, like a .
child, is going to town to see Santa Claus. Both the lady who ties her shoes for her .
and the first attendant at the clinic call her "Grandma"; the attendant rudely asks .
whether she is deaf because Phoenix does not immediately reply to her routine .
questions, and from that point on, she consistently treats Phoenix as if she were .
stupid.
This is ironic because there is so much inside Phoenix--so many years, so .
much pain, so much awareness. When, at the story's end, she is finally treated with .
a little compassion at the clinic, Phoenix demonstrates a miraculous ability to .
accept the harsh circumstances of her life, and get on. Phoenix's path is worn out .
not only because she herself has had to travel it so many times, but because it .
symbolizes the path traveled by poor and oppressed black people at that time. I .
