Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice.
Exposition
We're Off to See the Wizard
The story set up gives us the deets on Phoenix's physical appearance and some info on her surroundings. At this point, we know we are following along with a small, old black woman as she makes her way along a path situated way out in the country woods. Okay, so it's not the yellow brick road, but it is still a really long path. Settle in.
Rising Action
Over the River and Through the Woods
As Phoenix traverses her path, she crosses through pinewoods, oak trees, up hills and down hills, through thorny bushes, over a creek on a sketchy looking log bridge, under a barbed-wire fence, through dead trees and fields of dried corn and cotton, through easy parts and swampy parts.
She meets all sorts of beasts and specters along the way: a mourning dove, an imaginary boy bearing a slice of cake, a buzzard, a ghost—okay, it's actually a scarecrow, but it looks like a ghost from afar—quail, and a galloping black dog. There are also hints of plenty of other creatures such as alligators, two-headed snakes, and foxes. Phoenix even encounters a person, a hunter who helps her up, chats with her, and then points a gun at her.
In short, the rising action of this story presents Phoenix's journey as quite the ordeal, jam packed with classical-myth-style obstacles. After all this, Phoenix finally arrives in town, which has a very different feel with its paved streets and green and red lights strung up for Christmas.
Climax
Phoenix in the City
"A Worn Path" is not exactly a mystery thriller, but there is mystery involved around where Phoenix is going, why, and whether she will reach her goal. We finally get answers to all this when Phoenix ascends the stairs leading to the medical office and announces, "Here I be" (68). Her epic journey culminates at this clinic where she seeks medicine to soothe her grandson's throat.
The clinic is also the place of most significant confrontation because it is where the protagonist /literature-glossary/protagonist.html goes from Phoenix the heroic quester, to Phoenix the old and exhausted woman who is powerless to alter her grandson's condition. At least, this is how the attendant and the nurse at the clinic see her. But Phoenix, like the bird she is named for, rises again, above their judgments and undeterred from her purpose.
Falling Action
Mission Accomplished
Once Phoenix procures the medicine for her grandson, the attendant offers Phoenix some spare change from her purse as Phoenix prepares to leave. Phoenix adds the nickel from the attendant to the nickel she took from the hunter, and she decides that she will buy a paper windmill to bring back for her grandson along with his medicine.
Resolution
She Will Survive, Hey, Hey
Phoenix ends the story and begins her return with the same sense of solemnity and ceremony that she held throughout her journey into town. Each movement of her exit is recorded—"she lifted her free hand, gave a little nod, turned around, and walked out of the doctor's office" (100)—demonstrating her careful attention, commitment to, and belief in her journey despite what others think.