What role does the setting play in “A Worn Path"?

In Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path," setting plays a very important role. Welty has written a great deal about the importance of place in fiction, and her own fiction reflects this. This story's setting is the Natchez Trace area. The action takes place in Mississippi in the 1940s. The role that setting plays, then, is to provide the protagonist, Phoenix Jackson, with a place to take her journey into town. She must walk through the...

In Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path," setting plays a very important role. Welty has written a great deal about the importance of place in fiction, and her own fiction reflects this. This story's setting is the Natchez Trace area. The action takes place in Mississippi in the 1940s. The role that setting plays, then, is to provide the protagonist, Phoenix Jackson, with a place to take her journey into town. She must walk through the wilderness of the Natchez Trace, which includes brambles, trees, fallen logs, wild dogs, and hunters.

Because she is a very old and nearly blind woman, the journey is especially treacherous for her. However, she makes it every year because she must get medicine for her sick grandson (although no one is very certain whether her son is sick or dead). The role of setting, then, is to aid in character development. Because the setting is dangerous in many ways, and Phoenix remains determined to make the journey, Welty shows that she is a strong, determined woman who will overcome any obstacle.