StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Dead Men's Path by Chinua Achebe - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
"Dead Men's Path" written by Chinua Achebe is the story of Michael Obi, a 26 years old, well-educated school teacher who has been asked to be the headmaster at the Ndume Central School, being an "unprogressive" school.Michael is well known for his narrow views of older and less-educated people…
Download free paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER93.5% of users find it useful
Dead Mens Path by Chinua Achebe
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Dead Men's Path by Chinua Achebe"

?Reynaldo Cruz Eng-102.19 December 6, Paper #                                           "Dead Men's Path" Summary        In "Dead Men's Path" Chinua Achebe writes the story of Michael Obi, a 26 years old, well-educated schoolteacher who has been asked to be the head master at the Ndume Central School. This school has the reputation of always being an "unprogressive" school. Michael is well known for his narrow views of older and less-educated people. He sees the request of been the head master of this school as the opportunity that he is been waiting for a long time. It is an opportunity in where he can put his wonderful and new modern ideas.  Mr. Obi accepts the position with great enthusiasm. His wife Nancy decides to support him by turning the school yard into a beautiful garden. Mr. Obi and his wife Nancy put their whole lives into the work of creating a school with modern, high standards and Nancy's dream garden. One evening as Mr. Obi was admiring his work, he sees a woman from the local village walk through the flower beds. Scandalized by seeing this woman walking by his school grounds, he asks a teacher for an explanation. The teacher informs him that for years, people from the near village have walked along this path that connects the village shrine with the burial place and the schoolyard. Mr. Obi sees this path as the same old-fashioned superstition that he wants to get rid of from his school. Also the Government Education Officer is coming soon to inspect the school and he wants to impress him with the transformation of the new modern school. This path is jeopardizing his chance to make this great impression, so he orders to build a fence to block the path.  When the village priest realizes that the path was closed he meets with Obi and politely explains how important the path is for the villagers and asks him to unblock the path. Michael refuses to reopen the path and makes fun of the villager's tradition. The villager priest doesn't say a word and leaves. A couple of days later a woman in the village dies in childbirth. Achebe writes the consequence of Mr. Obi's decision and the reaction of the villagers, "A diviner was consulted immediately and prescribed heavy sacrifices to propitiate ancestors insulted by the fence".  Mr. Obi wakes up the next morning and sees the ruins of his work. He wakes up to see the schoolyard devastated, the flowers trampled to death, one of the school buildings pulled down and the beautiful hedges torn up not just near the path but right around the school, as the narrator reports, “The beautiful hedges were torn up not just near the path but right round the school, the flowers trampled to death and one of the school buildings pulled down” (Achebe). To add to Obi's misfortune, that day, the white Supervisor came to inspect the school and wrote a nasty report about the condition of the school premises and blames Mr. Obi for the "tribal-war situation" developing between the school and the village. "Dead Men's Path" Response  "Dead Men's Path" has many themes, but the one that I feel is that Chinua Achebe tries to illustrate to us is the theme of tolerance and understanding of other people's beliefs. Achebe presents to us Michael Obi, a young man who, drunk with success, feels like he was above and superior to people less educated than him, or as Achebe describes him: "He was outspoken in his condemnation of the narrow view of these older and often less-educated ones".  This reminds me of the Nazi mentality, a mentality which emphasizes only one way to view the world and the destruction of the other views.  "Dead Men's Path" is showing us how narrow views don't allow us to have tolerance towards others. Not having tolerance towards others is one of the causes of many conflicts we have in today's world. The lack of tolerance has separated us. We tend to be stuck in our narrow views and think that our view is superior to the other people. Some say that there is a God; others opposes saying that there is not a God. Some say that Christianity is the right religion; others claim that Islam is right. There are so many opposing views in this world. We all have our views, and we don't have to change them if we don't want to, but we cannot change other people's views by force if they themselves don't want.  When Obi discovered the path, he was told by a teacher from his school and later by the village priest, that the path had been used by the village for years as tradition. But for Obi the path was a connection with the old style of living -- a connection that was directly interfering with his reform and the impression that he created towards others. For him the path needed to be closed in order to wipeout those old "superstitions". But the path was there and used long ago before he first saw it. A whole village believed those "superstitions" and Obi, stuck in his narrow views, didn't think of the consequences which his views were going to create by opening the path. By opening it he rather pushed the tribe into war, as the priest declares: “If you reopen the path we shall have nothing to quarrel about. What I always say is: let the hawk perch and let the eagle perch” (Achebe) If we try to put our views onto others by force, we have to realize that what we are doing is starting a war. People have to realize that what they perceive as right can be perceived by others as wrong. "The dead Men's Path" wants us to realize that there are many different views and beliefs in the world. We have to respect other people's views and beliefs if we want to live in peace. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Dead Men's Path by Chinua Achebe Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/literature/1464306-dead-mens-path-by-chinua-achebe
(Dead Men'S Path by Chinua Achebe Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words)
https://studentshare.org/literature/1464306-dead-mens-path-by-chinua-achebe.
“Dead Men'S Path by Chinua Achebe Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/literature/1464306-dead-mens-path-by-chinua-achebe.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Dead Men's Path by Chinua Achebe

Themes and Symbols in Everyday Use

So, this paper focusing on various historical themes and cultural symbols in Alice Walker's “Everyday Use” will compare it with other works including Walker's Color Purple, Chinua Achebe's “dead men's path” and Charlotte Gilman's “The Yellow Wallpaper”.... Customer's Name Class Name Date the assignment is due Everyday Use 1....
8 Pages (2000 words) Research Paper

Chinua Achebes Dead Men's Path: Conflict Recognition and Compromise Evaluation

Instructor Name 15 December 2011 Chinua Achebe‘s dead men's path: Conflict Recognition and Compromise Evaluation Introduction Colonization came in different forms: from invading civilizations and procuring access to the booty, to the almost invincible alteration of cultural and religious preferences.... The specific process of identifying conflicts and opportunities for compromise are best illustrated in Chinua Achebe's dead men's path.... The Story Religious conflicts in achebe's works can be attributable to his being raised as a Christian in a country that is largely into traditional religious practices....
5 Pages (1250 words) Research Paper

Comparison between Dead Man's Path and A Tale for Children

In Dead Men's Path by Chinua Achebe's, Michael Obi who happens to be the headmaster of a progressive school, has distinctive religious beliefs he got from his village.... In dead men's path, the author uses symbols in the setting, as well as characterization in expressing the theme (Achebe 10).... In this case, there is a perception of death or death symbolism as following the death of the woman, as well as her baby (achebe 35).... Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Comparison between “Dead Man's path” and “A Tale for Children” All through the years, the culture of a variety of populations has transformed a number of times, in many distinctive ways, leading to negative reactions from some, as well as approval from others....
5 Pages (1250 words) Research Paper

Jamie Oliver Chocolate Cake, H&M Drops Kate Moss

Jamie Oliver Chocolate Cake This writing on Jamie Oliver Chocolate Cake is about preparing a chocolate cake at home from left-over ingredients or easily available at-home food and consumable items.... This informational piece of writing has been written to help readers learn making the chocolate cake at home just by reading this piece of writing....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Chinua Achebes A Dead Man's Path

In the paper “Chinua Achebe's A Dead Man's Path” the author compares and contrasts the two stories “A Dead Man's Path” by chinua achebe and 'Everyday Use' by Alice Walker.... The most significant difference in these two stories is the choice in point of view, which is told from Obi in achebe's story and from the mother's in Walker's.... nbsp; In his efforts to beautify the school compound, he cuts off an old village path in favor of uniform hedges… despite the fact that the locals believe their family spirits use the route, as well as unborn children, who follow it to be born in the village....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

A.Formalist criticism see pages 1445-1447 (analyzing literary components)

"dead men's path.... The author recognizes Achebe dead men's path as illustration of Africa being at the crossroad when it comes to cultural and social issues.... "dead men's path.... "chinua achebe'S COUNSELLING CREATIVITY.... 158) and the mentality of tye younger generation looking at the western culture as superior. The articles achebe, Chinua.... The articles expresses view on modern cultures and supports the idea by achebe theme on Africa being at crossroad of cultural identity....
1 Pages (250 words) Annotated Bibliography

Chinua Achebes Dead Mens Path

The paper "Chinua Achebe's dead men's path" describes that Chinua Achebe's presentation of the 'dead men's path' presented opportunities for conflict recognition and compromise evaluation in the context of religious differences between the Christians and the non-Christians.... This also involves a great deal of negotiation, not just mere pacification The specific process of identifying conflicts and opportunities for compromise is best illustrated in Chinua Achebe's dead men's path....
5 Pages (1250 words) Literature review

Comparison essay: compare 2 short stories

The response expected by Josephine was that her sister would be shattered by the news, just as common “Conflict in “dead men's path” and “Story of an Hour”” The of both books depict tragic tales, whether the tragedy stems from an interpersonal conflict as in the case of The Story of an Hour or the conflict between the modern versus the traditional values of life as in Dead Man's Path.... Obi holds the villagers in very low regard, which is evident from the following lines “These old and superannuated people in the teaching field who would be better employed as traders in the Onitsha market” (achebe, 12)....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us