A plot is known as a foundation of a story which the characters and settings are built around. It is used to describe the events that make up a story or the main part of the story. The plot also focuses attention on the important characters and their roles in the story. It creates a desire for the reader to go on reading by absorbing them in the middle of the story, wanting to know what is happening next.

In the two stories Happy Endings and A Worn Path, both Atwood and Welty create unique plots. Neither of the authors focus on characterization in their stories, they allow the reader to visualize the characters through the events that occur throughout the story. In A Worn Path, Welty describes the journey of an elderly black woman named Phoenix Jackson who walks from her home to the city of Natchez to get medicine for her sick grandson. In the beginning of Happy Endings, Atwood begins by introducing the two main characters, John and Mary, and then offers six different scenarios of who they are and what might happen to them. Both authors have created a plot that the characters and settings are built around. 

           

In the first scenario of Happy Endings, Atwood refers to it as the "happy ending." In this scenario, everything goes right, the characters have wonderful lives, and nothing unexpected happens. She does not release much information on the characters, they are entirely undeveloped. In A Worn Path, Welty allows the reader to see Phoenix as a loving, caring and determined woman who is facing many obstacles to get medicine for her sick grandson. Welty never describes what her name symbolizes in the story. She has left it up to the reader to portray phoenix as they wish.

           

In conclusion, the plot reveals the entire story and gives the reader a sense of completion that they have finished the story and reaches a conclusion. By identifying and understanding the plot, the reader is able to understand the message conveyed by the author and the moral of the story.

  Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. “Happy Endings.” Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Pearson, 2012. 290-93. Print.

 Welty, Eudora. “A Worn Path” Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Pearson, 2012. 365-72. Print.