The short story, “Dead Men’s Path,” by Chinua Achebe, in the short story Achebe addresses the cultural conflicts that exists between Michael Obi’s the central character “European” ideas verses “old” African customs. Obi has a total disregard for the people of the village and his colleagues. The story is set in 1949, a rural village in southeast Nigeria. Obi is willing to do anything to ensure that his educational mission is satisfied. He makes every effort to change everything in his path in order to modernize everything around him.
The account takes place at Ndume Central School in Africa at age 26 Obi is overjoyed about being appointed headmaster of the Ndume Central School which is a failing school. He and his new wife are hopeful with plans of change. According to the author “In their two years of married life she had become completely infected by his passion for “modern methods” and his denigration of “these old and superannuated people in the teaching field who would be better employed as traders in the Onitsha market. ” (Achebe pg. 309).
Obi has a superior attitude because he considers himself to be a “pivotal teacher” and has a very low opinion about the less educated teachers that he will be working with. Obi looks at this opportunity as one that will help him to shine. Both Obi and his wife become obsessed with showing everyone how the school should be run since together they felt that his colleges didn’t share the same educational background that he possesses. One day while Obi is admiring his work he is disgusted to see an old man from the village walking with difficulty right across the complex, through a marigold flower-bed and the hedges.
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Obi is insulted by the villagers using the school garden as a footpath to a village shrine he makes the decision to put an end to this practice. Obi is advised by the priest on the significance of this footpath to the village shrine. The priest goes as far as to tell Obi that the path was created before he was born and before his dad was born and that the life of the villagers depends on this path. Obi chooses to disregard his warning not to barricade the pathway. This supported by the author Obi thought about the shrine and his role as an educator “The whole purpose of our school”, he said finally, “is to
eradicate just such beliefs as that. Dead men do not require footpaths. The whole idea is just fantastic. Our duty is to teach your children to laugh at such ideas”. (Achebe pg. 311) Villagers used this path to leave from the village and visit dead ancestors. The path allowed children to come into the community to be born. By blocking the path, the child was not allowed to enter the village, and both the mother and child died. Obi is blamed for the death of one of the women who died in childbirth, since the path that once connected the village shrine is now blocked.
In retaliation, Obi wakes up to find to find the path ruined all of the beautiful hedges are torn down, the flowers are trampled to death and the school once perfectly constructed school premises in ruins. Michael felt that his job was to abolish ancestral beliefs and it was his duty as an educator to teach the children not to take old traditions serious. Nevertheless after the death of the young woman in retaliation the hedges surrounding the school are destroyed; after his supervisor issues a report on the incident Obi is dismissed from his dream job.
Michael Obi was ignorant of others beliefs he held hostility to traditional African beliefs, believing that they should be erased. The imaginary line that lead from the school grounds into the cemetery although it was not often used was essential in transforming the souls of newborns, the flowers being destroyed represent the course that Obi life had taken he chose to act out of haste instead of listening to what he was told and this lead to the destruction of his dreams hopes and plans.
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