Object of the Study

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