Throughout A Worn Path Welty is very good at using detailed descriptions of people, places, and things. Welty starts the story by describing the appearance of the main character, Phoenix Johnson.
Welty starts by describing setting that Phoenix is presently in. The countryside that is described before us at the beginning is that it is cold and Christmastime weather. On this December day she is walking down a long and enduring Natchez Trace to perform a heroic quest. On the path it goes into great detail about all the things she sees such as water, animals, cabins, plants, and dangerous places. This gives us the sense that she is familiar with taking this journey linking us to Phoenix and the history behind the path.
The appearance that Phoenix Johnson has is very important to the story. She uses striking details by informing us that Johnson is a small and old African American lady. Details like having a sugar sack as an apron, an umbrella as a cane, a red rag around her hair, and shoes with dragging laces help us get the image that she is not wealthy at all.
Even with all of the physical
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As she travels her journey on the Natchez Trace she preservers trough every kind of obstacle she faces. She faces challenges both physically with the trip emotionally with the abuse from the white hunter. She is also facing the fact that her grandson is at home sick. While facing all of these obstacles and challenges her personality shows that she would do it all again in a heartbeat in order to help care for the ones she loves. In this humble situation she still carries pride in the fact that she is able to acquire medicine for her beloved grandson. Welty shows Phoenix Johnson traveling on this “Worn Path” to show the struggles that African Americans had to endure during this time of hardships and