A Worn Path 2 Essay, Research Paper

A Worn Path : Literary Paper

Eudora Welty is one of America s great novelist and short-story writer whose tales about eccentric but charming characters from small Mississippi towns have won her a large audience ( Mcquen & Winkler pg. 369). Welty uses many different literary apparatus to help her audience get of sense of story. One of her best short- stories that she has written has been A Worn Path. Welty uses setting, characterization, and diction in order to help the short story to be well defined to facilitate the audience to understand the story.

In the short story there is a descriptive setting of where Phoenix Jackson, an old lady who goes off to get medicine for her sick grandson, is starting on her journey. The setting starts off in early December morning, where the ground is frozen though there is bright sun shining into her face. This setting helps to create the audience s feeling toward the old woman because she is walking in such cold weather. The setting reminds the audience of their experience of getting up in the morning and having to go out to do a task. It makes the audience sympathize for her cause they know what she is feeling. She must have a feeling of pain and numbness in her from the cold air that she is breathing into her lungs. Another detail to the setting that Welty adds is the pinewoods that she is walking through. This one detail in the setting helps the readers remind themselves of the cold pine smell. The setting the short story helped to attract the audience cause it helped to create a zone that have felt before and know that it is not pleasant. As the author uses setting for her as a tool to help audience sense the story, she also uses characterization also.

Welty uses characterization in this story to help describe how Phoenix Jackson looks and dresses like. Phoenix Jackson was described from the short story as :

Her eyes were blue with age. Her skin had a pattern all its own numberless branching wrinkles and as though a whole little tree stood in the middle of her forehead, but a golden color ran underneath, and the two knobs of her cheeks were illuminated by a yellow burning under the dark. Under the read rag her hair came down on her neck in the frailest of ringlets, still black, and with an odor like copper.

This detailed description of her helps the audience to see a vivid picture of her in their mind. The author also described how Phoenix Jackson was dressing like. She was wearing a long striped dress that reached all the way down to her toes. She wore an apron with a big pocket in the front of it. This imagery helps to describe what the African American slave women were wearing back in the days where slavery was allowed. The author does a great job to help create a reality picture of a woman that no one has seen before.

Welty uses specific words and phrases in her short story. This diction in her story helps the audience to understand what she is addressing. When Phoenix Jackson starts to talk she has slang. For example, I in the thorny bush , this is improper English because in that time African women were not given education. Another example is I ought to be shut up for good, this example one can see the use of the English that African slaves had accumulated due to their culture and society. The word ought is not even considered a word in the dictionary, but Phoenix Jackson gives it a meaning. The author helps the story to have more style because it creates an ascent for the characters and as a result also helps the readers to experience how the slaves were talking back in the days.

Eudora Welty uses many of literary tools in her short stories to help them give a grasp for the readers. One such great short story that she has written is A Worn Path. This story has many things that one can analysis on. Welty uses setting, characterization, and diction in order to help the audience feel and see what the story is talking about. Eudora did a great job on this on story, by using details that were very pictorial. This is what helped develop a great setting and characterization. The diction in her story helped the style that she writes. All this helped to make a fantastic story and an enjoyable story to read.