Language and Setting

The story's setting is crucial because it illustrates the heavy traffic and arduous journey Phoenix makes as an old woman. Phoenix lives "away back off the Old Natchez Trace," which means her journey— compounded by the fact that it is December—is difficult. Phoenix finds herself encountering all kinds of animals, thorn bushes, deep ditches, and streams. She meets with barbed-wire fences and other travelers, and with each leg and challenge of the journey, her love and devotion to her grandson is highlighted. The narrator's description engages the reader, illustrates Phoenix's self-sacrfice, and endears her to the reader.

In terms of language, Welty uses simile extensively, which in turn allows the narrator to paint a vivid picture of the action. Phoenix's face, for example; "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___" Phoenix's cane is as "limber as a buggy whip," and Phoenix walks across the log, "like a festival figure in some parade."