When I first read this story, I thought it was about some old woman, named Phoenix Jackson walking around in the winter talking to herself an awful lot. I was kinda bored so I was just skimming until I got to a part where Phoenix had a gun pointed at her and that really confused me since all she did was pick up a nickel the man had dropped. Then in class we were told that the story took place in 1941 and then it made sense due to the racism from the time.
This made me realize that this is a very strong woman, she crossed over creeks and barbed wire fences just to walk to town and kept her cool when she had a gun pointed at her, this is quite a task for anyone, but to imagine an elderly woman doing this is just amazing in my mind. Of course she does state that the journey is not easy on her by saying that her feet felt like they were chained. Phoenix eventually reaches town and we discover that she went to town in order to get medicine for her grandson, she manages to get the medicine for free and get another nickel from a hospital employee
The fact that she had to do all this to get the medicine made me quite sad because It made it obvious that she was poor, and that she was very lucky to get this medicine. Also, her grandson is the only family she has, and he is sick, she is very old and may not live much longer. When she dies, her grandon will be alone inthe world.
I really like this story, it really made me think of the effects of discrimination and racism, and the atrocities that were allowed to take place because people are a little different. It also amused me when I thought about how amazing this woman is for making a full days journey to town, and retrieving medicine for her ailing grandson.
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