Research the history of the Natchez Trace in Mississippi and the surrounding area. How has the trail been important to various groups throughout history, and why is this an appropriate setting for Welty's story of Phoenix Jackson?

Find out about race relations in the United States, especially in Mississippi, during the early 1940s. Are these the same attitudes Welty depicts in "A Worn Path"?

The journey has been a literary device since ancient Greek times when Homer wrote The Odyssey, How is Phoenix Jackson's walk through the woods similar to Odysseus's seven-year journey home after the Trojan War?