Theoretical Framework REVIEW OF LITERATURE

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CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS

In conducting the analysis to answer the problem formulations in the first chapter, the researcher applies the problem formulations as guidance. Based on the problem formulation, the analysis is expected be divided into 2 subchapters. Rather 3 subchapters are preferred by the researcher to ease the analysis in the mean to be understandable. The first subchapter does analysis on characters in the story. This subchapter mainly discusses how the characters are described in the story. The second subchapter examines how the setting is described in the story. The setting examination searches for deeper understanding of the setting’s description throughout the story. Then, the last subchapter uses the answers in the first and second subchapter in the analysis to word the theme into statement that “holds true of the story as a whole” Kennedy and Gioia, 2010: 185. Those subchapters may be divided into smaller section as it seems fit. A. Depiction of the main character and the setting in “A Worn Path” 1. Depiction of the main character in the story There are several characters in the “A Worn Path”, which can be categorized into two types, the major and minor characters. However, there is only one major character or main character in the story, whose name is Phoenix Jackson, an old African - American woman. The other characters are the minor characters. The minor characters are mentioned without specific names like the major character of the story. However these minor characters are mentioned according to their significant traits. Two of them are named after their gender and the rest is named after their occupation. They are a white man, a lady, an attendant and a nurse. Those four characters are presented in the story as minor characters. Phoenix Jackson is described in the story as a black woman or a African - American woman, to be precise. The author gives very detailed descriptions of her characteristics at the beginning of the story, starting with her physical appearance. She is very old and small in terms of age and size of body. She is depicted to have blue eyes to show signs of aging. Her skin has wrinkles as she is old and is obviously black as what African - American people would be. These wrinkles are described to look like branches of a tree by the author. In addition, the wrinkles on her face seem to form a little tree at the middle of her forehead. Also a golden color is visible underneath those wrinkles at her forehead. The author also mentions that a yellow color of burning flame in the darkness illumines the two knobs of Phoenix’s cheeks. In describing the hair, the author depicts her hair as not longer than her shoulders. Despite of the fact that Phoenix’s hair is unhealthy, weak, and fragile as an old woman’s hair usually is, it is still black. The researcher finds it rather unusual regarding her appearance of her black hair. …She was very old and small… …Her eyes were blue with age. Her skin had a pattern all its own of 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 illumined by a yellow burning under the dark. Under the red rag her hair came down on her neck in the frailest of ringlets, still black, and with an odor like copper Welty, 1994: 142. Moreover the author also describes her clothes that she wears from the head to the toes. Phoenix wears a red rag on her head. It is covering her frail black