Eudora Welty, in "A Worn Path" and Alice Walker in "Everyday Use" write about believable, well-developed characters, but Ms. Walker has the advantage of an insider's viewpoint since she is a black author writing about a black woman. Ms. Walker can tell a story through her own eyes culturally, and it helps the reader feel a bit closer to the characters.
             Phoenix, the central character in Welty's "A Worn Path", is described from the third person. The details in this story are wonderful, and the reader learns so much from them. Phoenix, whose "skin had a pattern all its own of numberless branching wrinkles" is old. Her "long apron of bleached sugar sacks" gives the clue that she is probably poor because she made her apron from sacking material. The reader understands Phoenix from the external, like what she looks like, where she went and what she did.
             Alice Walker's story, "Everyday Use", is written in the first person. Mama, the central character, describes the setting, "I will wait for her in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy yesterday afternoon." Others are seen through Mama's eyes. This is more personal than the third person of Eudora Welty's story. Alice Walker's character, Mama, lets the reader know many facts and observations and as a result it is easier to get under their skin and identify with them.
             In Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path", the primary way of knowing what Phoenix was thinking is the way she talks to herself. "Now comes the trial", Phoenix says as she faces the creek in her walk. "I wasn't as old as I thought," she says to herself after getting across. In contrast, Mama (of Alice Walker's "Everyday Use") just tells the reader what she thinks. "I used to think she hated Maggie, too," gives an idea of her thoughts. Mama's c...