Approach 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 hair. As for her body, a dark striped dress that reaches her ankle is worn by Phoenix. Along with that dress she wears a long apron that is equal by length with the dress and it is made of bleached sugar sack. On her hand she holds a thin small cane that is made of an umbrella. Her feet wear shoes which are left unlaced until a lady in town laces her shoelaces for her. …with her dead tied red rag,… She carried a thin small cane made from an umbrella,… She wore a dark stripped dress reaching down to her shoe tops, and an equally long apron of bleached sugar sacks, with a full pocket: all neat and tidy,… which dragged from her unlaced shoes Welty, 1994: 142. Moreover the text also gives a description of how Phoenix Jackson walks. It is described very briefly but effectively at the beginning of the story. The description begins with how she walks. Like an old person she walks slowly, but steadily. Another detail in the text directs us to depict that she can’t walk in a straight line. She walks like a balanced pendulum of a standing tall wooden clock which swings periodically from left to right or right to left with a cane in her hand Old Phoenix wobbles ahead. It is just a little look like the pendulum move. Along with the steadiness of her walk, the author also describes how Phoenix uses her cane that is made of an umbrella to help her walk. The movement of Phoenix’s cane that described in detail adds a point to how steady she is walking, as Old Phoenix using the cane. It makes the noise that emits persistent and grave feeling. Despite the fact that the author depicts this steadiness of her walk to this extent, the unlaced shoes of Old Phoenix trample the steadiness as it may trip her from time to time. …she walked slowly…moving a little from side to side in her steps, with the balanced heaviness and lightness of a pendulum in a grand-father