In Welty's story "A Worn Path," what are some patterns in the way the author uses the voices, and what general conclusions can be drawn about how the...

The obstacles
and contradictory voices that Phoenix Jackson does not allow to deter her as she makes her long
trek to Natchez serve to develop the illustration of the theme of endurance of the human
spirit. 

herself has written of this story,

The habit of love cuts through confusion and stumbles or contrives
its way out of difficulty, it remembers the way even when it forgets, for a dumbfounded moment,
its reason for being.

Aptly named,
Phoenix finds herself knocked down several times, and dumbfounded at times, but she rises (like
an aged phoenix) and continues in her "habit of love" toward Natchez, Mississippi,
where she can obtain medicine for her ailing grandson.

Nearly blind,
Phoenix's poor perception emphasizes the intense physical and mental efforts she must make in
order to complete her journey of love against the obstacles she encounters. But whenever she
runs into things or falls, her inner voice encourages her to persevere. As she begins, Phoenix
tells herself, "Now comes the trial."

• She must walk
  across a large log by placing her cane before her with each step. After succeeding in this
  venture, she compliments herself, "I wasn't as old as I thought." 


• She must creep and crawl through a barbed-wire fence, "spreading her knees and
  stretching her fingers like a baby trying to climb steps," but she talks loudly to herself,
  much like a mother telling her child that she must not tear her dress, or worse, tear her
  arm.
• She challenges a buzzard flying over, "Who you
  watching?"
• She must move through cotton and corn fields that are so
  tall they form a maze for her.
• As she hears the field, she is confronted
  with "something tall, black, and skinny" that moves. Phoenix mistakes it for a man.
  Again, she challenges this foe, "...who you be the ghost of? For I have heard of nary death
  close by." But when she realizes that it is only a scarecrow, Phoenix scolds herself.
  Joking with the scarecrow she says, "Dance, old scarecrow...while I dancing with you."
  She fortifies herself with humor.
• As she traverses a quiet field, Phoenix
  encourages herself, "This the easy place. This the easy going."


• She falls into a ditch when a black dog startles her. As though in a dream Phoenix
  puts her hand out, hoping someone will pull her up, but there is no one but the dog
  "smiling at you" she realizes, and brings herself back to reality.


• When she is discovered by a young hunter with his own dog, he teases her,
  "Granny, what are you doing there?" But she replies that she is lying like a
  "June-bug" that cannot turn itself over. The man ridicules her when she tells him
  where she is headed because he thinks she is like many "old colored people" and merely
  going to town "to see Santa Claus."
• She asks the man to rid her
  of the black dog, so he sends his dog after it and the animals fight; the man shoots his gun to
  break them up. Then he returns, saying he would give her a dime if he had one (she has picked up
  a nickel he dropped). He suggests she go home, but Phoenix replies stalwartly, "I bound to
  go on my way, mister." 
• Phoenix finally arrives in Natchez; however,
  because she "distrusts" her eyesight, she follows the pavement to the
  clinic.

Against all the intrusions of her imagination and poor
eyesight, Phoenix Jackson's inner voice of love rights her upon the path to Natchez whenever she
falls or becomes deluded because of her misinterpretation of an object. While she often scolds
herself, Phoenix adds words of encouragement so that she will persevere. Truly, her heart
controls these voices, directing Phoenix to her goal.