Dead Man's Path Essay

In the short story “Dead Man’s Path,” Chinua Achebe uses the path as a symbol of us a spiritual connection between the villagers and their ancestors. The Villagers use the path that goes through the schoolyard to get to the graves of their ancestors. The headmaster, Mr. Obi, tries to shut down the path because he believes the villagers should not be using the path since it runs directly through the schoolyard. The villagers take a stand and use the path anyways at night and take the time to destroy Mr. Obi’s wife’s flowerbeds that she so preciously planted to make the school look better.
Mr. Obi started a new job as a headmaster at a school that had needed help for quite some time. Mr. Obi and his wife took on the challenge of making the school look better by planting flowers and a beautiful garden. Chinua Achebe shows how Mr. Obi wants to make things modern by writing, “We shall have such beautiful gardens and everything will be just modern and delightful (10).” He also shows how Mr. Obi feels about the villagers and their traditions by stating, “The whole purpose of our school,
Obi is trying to make the school more modern and the villagers want to keep the traditional standards upheld. Mr. Obi states “The Villagers might, for all I know, decide to use the schoolroom for a pagan ritual during the inspection (11).” It is implied that the villagers do not just use the path, but that they will come into the school and use it to their advantage as well. When the priest spoke with Mr. Obi he mentioned “Our dead relatives depart by it and our ancestors visit us by it. But most important, it is the path of children coming in to be born (12).” The closing of the path would mean that the villagers would no longer have touch with their ancestors, nor have access to bring in new children. They believe that Mr. Obi should not have the right to close it down because it was not a part of his