Dead Men's Path

Obi and One Obi’s bonds with the community completely and quickly diminish when he sees a woman “hobble across the compound” on the path, and wonders why it is on his school property (270). As he confronts a teacher, Obi’s language protrudes once again as he states “it amazes me” “that you people allowed the villagers to make use of this footpath” (270). This constituent event sets up the rest of the narrative discourse,because if Obi did not see the woman he would have not noticed the path for they planted flowers and shrubbery on top of it. This path has Obi fuming, and now body emotions come forward as “he shook his head,” emphasizing even more to his disregard for the local traditions (270). Even after his brusque reaction the teacher tried to tactfully reserve some respect for the pompous fool by “apologetically” commenting on the path (270). The conversation with the teacher represents a point that Obi does not have an ignorance problem. It is strictly a blatant disregard to the history and values of the local population. With the priest being a person to obviously respect, Obi does but that. The priest reasons with Obi by stating “this path was here before you were born and before your father was born” (271). The priest is saying the path means something to us all, young and old, just as your new ways that you want to teach mean to you. Obi needsto realize that the school was built on top of the path not the other way around. Furthermore, Obi should realize that this path is part of everybody and at some day everybody will walk this path. It could easily from there be tied into educational values,and emphasis put on history and culture of the land. Obi does not understand that to sacrifice his beliefs of the path for a mutual agreement will salvage everything there is “to quarrel about” just as the priest says (271). Work Cited Achebe, Chinua. “Dead Men’s Path.” Literature: A Pocket Anthology. Ed. By R. S. Gwynn. 2nded. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005.

Cited: Achebe, Chinua. “Dead Men’s Path.” Literature: A Pocket Anthology. Ed. By R. S. Gwynn. 2nded. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005. 269-72.