A Worn Path Contrasting Regions Quotes

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Quote #10

She received the nickel and then fished the other nickel out of her pocket and laid it beside the new one. She stared at her palm closely, with her head on one side.

[…] "This is what come to me to do," she said. "I going to the store and buy my child a little windmill they sells, made out of paper. He going to find it hard to believe there such a thing in the world." (98-99)

In the city, most exchanges happen around money. If you want food, you go to the store and pay money. If you want a new coat, you go to the store and pay money. In the country setting that Phoenix is from, though, exchanges likely take the form of bartering between neighbors. To most people living in the city, this windmill is a common trinket from the market, but to Phoenix and her grandson, who are more removed from material culture, it is a remarkable and highly unusual thing.