Short Story : We Can Still Run?

“...It looks like we’re doing the same thing over and over but we’ve got one damn thing the phoenix never have,” Granger says. “We know the damn silly thing we just did...sometimes we’re stop making the goddamn funeral pyres and jumping in the middle. We pick up a few more people that remember every generation” (Bradbury 25).

At the beginning of the story, Phoenix has already answered the call to adventure. She carries with her a small thin cane, which has been made from an umbrella. She uses this to tap the ground as she walked. She probably carries the sick because of her poor eyesight due to age. Phoenix is determined to have a sooth journey for in her tripped dress, she stacks her pockets with foodstuffs. She is aware of the difficult journey that lies ahead of her, and cannot afford to be hungry on her way to town.

Also during Phoenix’s encounter with the hunter, the reader and Phoenix face the possibility of her death at the hands of the hunter. Yet, even as the hunter tries to exercise his racial superiority and intimidation over Phoenix, she again never hesitates. When the hunter points his gun into Phoenix’s face her response is simply, “...I seen plenty go off closer by, in my day, and for less than what I done.” The hunter even threatens, “But you take my advice and stay home, and nothing will happen to you.” Phoenix’s answer is simply an unflinching, “I bound to go on my way, mister.” Again Phoenix symbolises the bird as she refuses to give in to even the

In the end we figure that Phoenix may be on a journey that really does not exist. We find out that maybe the grandson isn’t alive and that he has been dead for weeks. Whether or not Phoenix was aware she did not let life bring her down, whatever she was set to do she did and with great perseverance she has achieved her goal.

11. The human nature that is seen when Phoenix encounters the scarecrow is happiness. She is glad that is a scarecrow and begins to dance with it. It seems like it is demonstrating life and Phoenix is happy that she is still alive at her old age. The scarecrow also scares away crows that usually symbolize death, so the scarecrow is scaring death away and Phoenix is happy because she is old and she might die soon. Nobody wants to

“I don’t know” Phoenix smiled back “I was hoping maybe you’d stay up here with me while I go through some of it so I’m not by myself in case something goes wrong”

Slowly, he reached out a timid hand, cautious to touch the stone. Then, making contact, he ever so lightly glazed over it with his index finger searching for anything unusual, any

head right there and then. This implies how Phoenix shows him no fear for any second he stand in front of her, yet she only showed him even more courage.

She remarks that “The path ran up and hill,” saying that every time she gets this far, “there is chains about [her] feet” and “something always take a hold of [her] on this hill” (Welty). This quote informs the reader that not only is the path Phoenix is taking difficult and uphill, but also that she has made this journey many times before. The forest is beautiful, “deep and still” and sunny, yet it also serves as a hindrance to her progress. The difficulty of the path and setting combined with Phoenix’s continuation onward testify to her perseverant

Phoenix lived in a society where racism was still running strong. Yet she faced and dealt with that every day of her life. As an African-American slave, she would have toil in the fields, wondering if she would still be alive by the time the sun was setting. Phoenix is visible shaken with a run a scarecrow she believed to be a ghost. She says to image, "'Ghost,' she said sharply, 'who be you the ghost of? For I have heard of nary death close by” (Welty 24).Slave mothers would often show that same fear as they watched the shadows return from the field; wondering if their loved ones were still alive or was going to come home unharmed. Phoenix faced those same fears as a mother and grandmother. If Phoenix was caught in the

That’s why it’s even more astounding that she recognizes there are things to be grateful for in it. For example, how does Phoenix react when she realizes the “ghost” is actually a scarecrow? “I ought to be shut up for good,” she laughs, “My senses is gone. I too old. I the oldest people I ever know.

Phoenix also encounters numerous physical obstacles between her and her goal. Shortly after setting out, she becomes entangled in an obstinate bush. She fights what appears to be a losing battle. As Welty describes it, “Her fingers were busy and intent, but her skirts were full and long, so that before she could pull them free in one place they were caught in another” (315; 8). Phoenix seems to maintain a good attitude as she begins to talk to the bush: “Thorns, you doing your appointed work. Never want to let folks pass, no sir. Old eyes thought you was a pretty little green bush” (315; 8). As she does with all of her other challenges, she

I take a deep breath, as I am waiting on the 4th lane of the track. The marshall yells his command,

When Phoenix's dress is caught in the bush, "it was not possible to allow her dress to tear" (87). She wore this long dress with an equally long apron made of bleached sugar sacks. Phoenix values all of her possessions greatly, including her grandson. When Phoenix was knocked into a ditch by a dog, a hunter confronts her. "He lifted her up, gave her a swing in the air, and set her down" (89). The hunter wants to show off his strength from being young, and his power from being white. He discourages her to continue and treats her with great disrespect. Though, through all of this, old Phoenix keeps her conversation sensitive with sarcasm in her words. Phoenix shows her pride and courage when the hunter points his gun in her face. She remains calm and keeps control of the situation with such a clever response: "I seen plenty [guns] go off closer by, in my day, and for less than what I done" (89). This was obviously not the first time Phoenix was confronted with death and she refused to let the hunter think he was in control by making her afraid of him. She is full of inner power which consists of her love, experience and sacrificing nature.

“Quite a lot of things,” Petersen said quite mysteriously. “Most of it is top secret.”