She wants to have money in order to buy a windmill for her grandson.

The title of Eudora Weltys story A Worn Path seems significant for a number
of reasons, including the following:
The very opening sentence of the story not only mentions a path but implies that the
adjective worn may be relevant to the old age of the protagonist:
an old Negro woman with her head tied in a red rag, coming along a path through the
pinewoods . . . .
The word path is in some ways a metaphor for the Phoenixs larger journey through
life.
Much of the story involves Phoenixs literal journeys as she walks down paths.
The phrase a worn path can suggest, metaphorically, the relative lack of variety in
Phoenixs life.
The fact that Phoenix spends much of the story walking on paths may symbolize her
determination. She rarely stops to rest; she rarely takes it easy. The path may thus
symbolize, to some degree, the challenges she faces and overcomes in life.
Sometimes her journey gives Phoenix confidence in herself, as in the following passage:
At the foot of this hill was a place where a log was laid across the creek.

Now comes the trial, said Phoenix. Putting her right foot out, she mounted the log and
shut her eyes. Lifting her skirt, leveling her cane fiercely before her like a festival figure
in some parade, she began to march across. Then she opened her eyes and she was safe
on the other side.

I wasn't as old as I thought,she said.
The variety of obstacles Phoenix faces on the path symbolizes the variety of challenges
she faces in her life.
The fact that Phoenix often follows a path calls attention to those instances in which she
must create a new path for herself, as in the following incident:
She passed through the old cotton and went into a field of dead corn. It whispered and
shook, and was taller than her head. 'Through the maze now,' she said, for there was no
path.
Sometimes the fact that the path is worn means that Phoenix has chances to relax a bit, as
when she says, Walk pretty . . . . This the easy place. This the easy going.
Near the end of the story, Phoenix can't remember something and doesn't speak until
asked the same question repeatedly. This fact suggest that she herself is becoming "worn"
down by age.
The title of the story anticipates the very last sentence of the story, thus giving the work a
kind of symmetry:
Then her slow step began on the stairs, going down.
Near the ending of Eudora Weltys piece, readers discover that Phoenix, the protagonist,
has often gone back and forth from her home to town, where she fetches medicine for her
ill grandson. Readers can infer this from the title, A Worn Path. This is the significance of
the title Phoenixs feet have walked that path to town many times in an attempt to bring
her grandson back to health.

3) In European folklore, Phoenixes are said to be firebirds. Their feathers
blaze with flame and can heal with a touch. Phoenix is an appropriate
name for Weltys piece because Phoenix possesses a fiery spirit and
determination, all to heal her grandson who is suffering after having
swallowed lye.
4)There are several reasons the author might have set the story during December and
the Christmas season. First and foremost is that Christmas brings to mind love and
sacrificial gift-giving, and both of these are strong factors in what motivates Old Phoenix
to make the long journey into town to get the medicine for her grandson's throat.
Phoenix wants to do what she can to ease her grandson's pain and suffering, so
she is willing to endure the physical travails of trudging along the worn path on
this "bright frozen (December) day in the early morning" despite her advanced
age and her own physical ailments and limitations. This journey, perhaps, also
brings to mind the long journey the wise men made to bring gifts to Jesus. They,
too, gave gifts from their hearts to help meet the baby's needs.
Along the way, the white hunter condescendingly suggests to Phoenix that
perhaps she is "going to town to see Santa Claus." This adds to the Christmas
setting, as does the nurse giving Old Phoenix a nickel from her own purse because
it is the Christmas season.
This nickel, in addition to the nickel Phoenix picked up earlier when the hunter
dropped it, enables her to buy her grandson a special gift for Christmas. She
announces to the nurse and the attendant at the desk:
"I going to the store and buy my child a little windmill they sells, made out of
paper. He going to find it hard to believe there such a thing in the world."
6) Point of View
"A Worn Path" is told from a third-person limited point of view. This allows the reader to
empathize with Phoenix, because her thoughts and actions are shown. Yet, in third-
person, the reader is allowed to view Phoenix from a distance, and thereby see her as
others see her.
Similes
Welty has been praised from early on for her use of language. In using similes, she makes
vivid comparisons that help the reader form a mind's eye picture of the action. Similes are
direct comparisons that use words such as "like" or "as" to link the two ideas. One such
simile in this story occurs in the description of Phoenix Jackson's face: "Her skin had a
pattern all its own of numberless branching wrinkles and as though a whole little tree
stood in the middle of heFforehead___" The narrator describes her cane as being "limber
as a...

Finally, with Phoenix being so old, she can be said to be in the winter, or
"December," of her life. Perhaps this was also part of the author's thinking in
setting the story in December.