What is the primary conflict the

headmaster faced in the story "Dead

Men's Path"?
This is primarily a man versus society conflict. In the story, the
protagonist is Michael Obi; his main conflict is with the villagers of
Ndume.

While the villagers cherish their time-tested and revered religious

traditions, Michael views these beliefs as antithetical to modernization
and progress. As the new principal, Michael hopes to restructure the
academic programs and to revolutionize teaching methods at Ndume
Central School.

Michael is enthusiastic about Ndume's future, but he fails to take into

account the deep respect for tradition among the village people. In a
conversation with a teacher, he laments the use of an unsightly
footpath that crosses the school grounds. The teacher relates that the
footpath joins the village shrine to a traditional burial place, but Michael
ignores the import of what the teacher tells him. He commissions
heavy sticks to be deposited at the entrance and exit sections of the
footpath, and he orders both sections to be reinforced with barbed
wire.

Meanwhile, the village priest begs Michael to reconsider his

unforgiving stance. He tells Michael that the dead walk the path to the
afterlife by it and that revered ancestors visit the living by it. He also
reiterates that newborn children enter the world through the foot path.
Michael scoffs at what he considers backward superstitions that have
no place in a modern world.

The priest ominously proclaims that both should agree to "let the hawk
perch and let the eagle perch." However, Michael is resolute in his
stance; he refuses to compromise on the situation.

The impasse is resolved the next morning when Michael wakes up to

find the school grounds vandalized, the flower beds destroyed, and
one of the school buildings torn down. So, Michael's modernization
efforts fail because he neglects to show respect for the entrenched
beliefs of the villagers.
In Chinua Achebe's "Dead Men's Path,"
why is Michael Obi given the position of
school headmaster?
Michael Obi is given the position of school headmaster because the
Mission authorities believe that he can revolutionize the school.
Because of Michael's training and his enthusiasm for progressive
education, the authorities feel that Michael will be able to modernize
the education program at the school.

Michael is also outspoken in his condemnation of what he considers

the backward and superstitious culture at the school. He believes that
he will be able to institute meaningful changes when he is headmaster.

So, when he gets to the school, Michael decides to raise the education
standards and to call for a complete renovation of the school grounds.
He commissions bright, beautiful flower gardens to be grown in the
school compound. By doing this, he hopes to highlight the new
changes taking place at the school. In his zeal, Michael neglects to
take the sensibilities of the villagers into consideration, and the final
results of his experimentation are extremely disappointing to him.

How are Micheal Obi and the priest

different in "Dead Man's Path"?
Michael Obi and the priest from the village near the school are similar
in that both want what is best for the village and the people in it. They
differ in what they believe is best for the village and how they approach
changing their community.

Michael Obi represents contemporary culture. He is, as Achebe says,

"young and enthusiastic." He wants to change the school, which has
always been "unprogressive." Unsurprisingly, Michael believes in
progress, and in progressive changes. He wants things to be modern.
He thinks that means things should be rational. This means there
should be explicit reasons for things, private property should be
respected, and the superstitions of the past (like the path walked by
the dead) should be rooted out and abandoned.
The priest represents continuity, history, and community. He wants the
people of the village to be able to do what they have always done. Of
the two, the priest shows more respect for others and their beliefs.

In "Dead Men's Path" by Chinua

Achebe, what do the Obis hope to
accomplish when they take charge of
the school?
In the story, Michael Obi has been appointed the principal of Ndume
Central School. With his wife, Nancy, Michael hopes to modernize
academic instruction at the school. As the headmaster, he is resolved
that the teachers must be held to a high standard and that all old-
fashioned and traditional ideas about education must be discarded. To
the Obis, the only thing holding back progress is the presence of "old
and superannuated people in the teaching field who would be better
employed as traders in the Onitsha market."

The husband and wife team also plan to modernize the school grounds
by planting beautiful gardens. With this two-pronged approach, the
Obis hope to bring progress to what they consider a primitive school
system. Unfortunately for the Obis, neither bargained for the communal
pride of the older villagers. Because of their disrespect for religious
traditions in the school district, both the Obis failed in their quest to
affect change at Ndume Central School.

In "Dead Men's Path" by Chinua

Achebe, what do the Obis hope to
accomplish when they take charge of
the school?
In the story, Michael Obi has been appointed the principal of Ndume
Central School. With his wife, Nancy, Michael hopes to modernize
academic instruction at the school. As the headmaster, he is resolved
that the teachers must be held to a high standard and that all old-
fashioned and traditional ideas about education must be discarded. To
the Obis, the only thing holding back progress is the presence of "old
and superannuated people in the teaching field who would be better
employed as traders in the Onitsha market."

The husband and wife team also plan to modernize the school grounds
by planting beautiful gardens. With this two-pronged approach, the
Obis hope to bring progress to what they consider a primitive school
system. Unfortunately for the Obis, neither bargained for the communal
pride of the older villagers. Because of their disrespect for religious
traditions in the school district, both the Obis failed in their quest to
affect change at Ndume Central School.

How does the setting in "Dead Men's

Path" create conflict between Obi and
the villagers?
The setting in "Dead Men's Path" creates tension between Michael
Obi, who has just been appointed headmaster of the Ndume School,
and the villagers because of the path that runs through the schoolyard.
The villagers rarely use the path, but "it connects the village shrine with
their place of burial." Furthermore, one villager states, "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..." Michael Obi
believes that a school, where students are taught to use reason and
logic, is no place for such beliefs. He responds, "Our duty is to teach
your children to laugh at such ideas."

Michael Obi, who is new to the village, is young and energetic and has
many modern and "wonderful ideas." He views the school as
unprogressive and hopes to modernize it. He has a negative attitude
about the school, the villagers, and their customs. When he sees an
old villager walking through the school along the path, he is dismayed
and insists on blocking the path with sticks and barbed wire despite the
fact that he hears of how important the pathway is to the villagers. His
refusal to remove the barrier leads to the villagers' trampling of the
schoolyard, which reflects poorly on Michael Obi, who the Supervisor
believes acted with "misguided zeal."

Is Michael Obi a villain or a hero?

While Michael Obi is not really a hero or a villain, he comes closest to
being a villain. He hopes to be a hero, bringing modern ideas to the
villagers; he acts, however, with "misguided zeal," and to the villagers,
he would likely be seen as a villain.

Michael Obi, who has just been named headmaster of the Ndume
School, sees the school as "backward in every sense of the word." He
is young, energetic, and modern and hopes to bring a positive change
to the village. Yet his inability to respect the villagers and their customs
and beliefs shows arrogance and makes him appear as more of a
villain to the community.

Despite the fact that the footpath has sacred importance to the
villagers, Obi insists on blocking the pathway with sticks and barbed
wire. When a villager explains that the path is used by the dead to
depart and visit the living and by children being born, Obi responds,
"The whole purpose of our school [...] is to eradicate just such beliefs."

While Obi believes that he is acting admirably by teaching the children

to laugh at the ideas of their ancestors, he is being insensitive to the
culture and heritage of the community he has entered by trampling
upon their customs, just as the villagers trample upon the schoolyard.

In "Dead Men's Path," how do the

operations of repression inform the
work? What unconscious motives are
operating in the main character(s)?
What core issues are thereby
illustrated?
There is some important context to consider before answering this
question, namely some context on "repression" and the "unconscious."

The theory of psychological repression was first proposed by Sigmund

Freud who, as part of his general theory of psychoanalysis, suggested
that mind is composed of three parts -- the ego, the superego, and the
id. The ego is the "conscious self," which is tasked with regulating the
internal demands of the id, the part of the mind where our instinctual
and sexual drives exist, and the superego, the part of the mind that has
internalized societal mores and rules. Under this model, a person is
confronted with internal conflicts that the brain resolves through
repression -- the effort on the part of the person to forget painful or
traumatic memories or evocations. While such traumas may be
forgotten temporarily, they cannot be ridden from the mind altogether,
as they exist in "energy-form," and thus, Freud believed, continue to
exist in the "unconscious mind."

Given this, we can attempt to understand some of the unconscious

motives of Michael and Nancy -- the two characters in Dead Men's
Path of whom we have psychological access. The first two sentences
of the story tell us about some of Michael's conscious goals, namely
that he was striving to become headmaster at Ndume Central School,
which appears to be have been a long-term goal of his. He is
appointed headmaster, and we learn that both he and his wife, Nancy,
view this as an opportunity to transform the school into a modern
institution. Modernity is symbolized in the story by Nancy's dream-
garden, with the "...Beautiful hibiscus and allamanda hedges in brilliant
red and yellow..." Michael and Nancy seem to relish in the thought that
they could bring progressive change to an institution filled with "old and
superannuated people."

In the third paragraph, we're given access to Nancy's psyche and

discover that upon reflecting upon her new status as the "admired wife
of the young headmaster," she is stricken with anxiety at the prospect
that there "might not be other wives" who would feel envious of her.
Here we discover this anxiety is motivated by the desire to be admired
or envied by other wives. This repressed emotion proceeds to color her
perception of Michael after seeking reassurance for herself. She
looked at him and he seemed "stoop-shouldered and... frail" as his
"bodily strength seemed to have retired behind his deep-set eyes."
This view of Michael reveals the possibility that he too is struggling with
internal conflicts and repressing them in order to pursue his goal of
modernizing the antiquated school system.

Later we learn that Michael's vision is incompatible with the beliefs of

the local villagers who use an old path that runs through the school
compound that, they believe, connects them with the deceased and
the unborn. Michael expresses his disdain for this path in conversation
with the village priest who is described as carrying "...a stout walking
stick which he usually tapped on the floor, by way of emphasis, each
time he made a new point in his argument." During their dispute,
Michael speaks of a Government Education Officer referred to as the
"white Supervisor," who, Michael believes, wouldn't approve of such
antiquated belief systems. "Dead men do not require footpaths," he
says.

In the conclusion of the story, we learn that the white Supervisor was,
in fact, displeased with Michael and the direction he was taking the
school, describing his modernist ideology as "misguided zeal." Thus
we learn that Michael's blind pursuit of his ideal school had caused
more conflict than it purported to resolve by upsetting the villagers. The
irony in the fact that the white Supervisor branded Michael the religious
zealot speaks to the possibility that, deep down, Michael holds these
ancestral beliefs himself and is potentially repressing them. That would
perhaps explain Nancy's initial momentary skepticism of the new
school.

When one examines the language and the description throughout the
story, it is clear that there is a contrast between the flowery, ideal vision
of the new school and the dreary, antiquated traditions of the villagers,
who are presented as "unprogressive" and "rank." One of our only
physical descriptions of Michael, which comes at the beginning of the
second page, reveals a worn-down, tired-looking person, and despite
being twenty-six years old "looked thirty or more." The author
intentionally uses this description and this kind of language to give us
hints into the possibility that both Michael and Nancy are repressing
important information from their superegos which put them in touch
with their communal roots -- roots that they have turned against in
favor of some newer ideal. On the morning the white Supervisor made
her comments, after the beautiful flowers were trampled and the
hedges torn down in an effort to propitiate the ancestors, Michael
stands accused of the very thing he condemned the old school system
of being.

Who is the female lead in the story

"Dead Men's Path"?
The female lead in the story is Nancy Obi. With her husband, Michael,
Nancy aims to work towards modernizing the backward school system
her husband, the new principal, has inherited. Nancy also dreams of
introducing new cultural trends into the school district.
In the story, Nancy is enthralled with Michael's love and respect for
"modern methods" of education. She completely understands his
suspicion of "old and superannuated" teachers who would be more at
home in the markets of Onitsha. Even while she celebrates what she
thinks is the bright future of Ndume Central School, she laments the
fact that there are no other wives for her to lord over. The other
teachers are all young and unmarried, and she must content herself
with overseeing the renovation of the school grounds instead. In due
time, however, the rains help bring Nancy's dream garden to fruition.
Beautiful flowering shrubs and plants give the old school compound a
robust, new look.

Nancy's pride is short-lived, however. When her husband neglects to

show consideration for the religious sensibilities of the villagers, the
couple soon learn that their high-handed ways will only bring about
negative results in this school district.

In "Dead Men's Path" by Chinua

Achebe, how does the headmaster
prevent the villagers from using the
path?
As the story begins, Michael Obi has just been appointed the principal
of Ndume Central School. Energetic and ambitious, Michael entertains
high hopes for turning the school into an academically progressive
powerhouse. However, his aspirations are dashed when he discovers
a much-used footpath marring the beauty of the newly landscaped
school compound.

Michael Obi thinks that the footpath is a symbol of a socially backward

culture steeped in superstition and primitive religiosity. He is
astonished that the teachers have continued to tolerate such a state of
affairs and sets out to do something about the footpath.

Accordingly, the headmaster prevents the villagers from further using

the path by blocking the entrance and exit walkways with heavy sticks.
The blocked path is also strengthened with barbed wire in these two
places. Soon, Michael Obi is visited by the village priest of Ani; the
priest begs the principal to reconsider opening up the footpath again,
but Michael Obi remains resolute. The story ends in tragedy; one
morning, the principal discovers the once beautifully landscaped
school compound and campus grounds destroyed beyond recognition
and one of the school buildings torn down.

What techniques does Achebe use to

characterize Michael Obi in "Dead
Men's Path"? How does this
characterization imply the ultimate
failure of Obi's goals?
Chinua Achebe indirectly characterizes Michael Obi as an enthusiastic,
progressive headmaster. Achebe develops Obi's character through his
actions and comments. Initially, Obi is depicted as a positive man with
good intentions, but he is later portrayed as a stubborn, unsympathetic
individual. Achebe portrays Obi's outspoken personality and depicts
how he condemns the older, less educated men in his field. Achebe
also portrays Obi's affinity for modernity through his comments. Obi
says, "We shall have such beautiful gardens and everything will be just
modern and delightful..." (Achebe 1). Obi's "modern methods"
transform the school and as he puts all his efforts into creating a new,
aesthetic learning environment. Achebe further develops Obi's
character by illustrating his reaction to the village priest. Michael Obi's
true personality is depicted, and he is unsympathetic and rigid. He
does not compromise or listen to Ani and decides to keep the path
blocked. Obi's arrogance and stubborn attitude imply his ultimate
failure. The next day the villagers vandalize his school after a woman
dies during childbirth and the inspectors write a scathing review of
Obi's intolerant character.

What news comes as a disappointment

to Michael Obi's wife?
In the story, Michael Obi is the newly appointed headmaster of Ndume
Central School. While her husband looks forward to modernizing what
he considers an antiquated school system, Nancy is excited about her
new position in society. She wants to be known as a trend-setter
among all the other schoolteachers' wives.

It never occurs to Nancy that there may not be any other wives to
bolster her dubious position as a society matron. When she expresses
her concerns to her husband, he does not appear perturbed. In fact,
Michael Obi happily asserts that all the schoolteachers are 'young and
unmarried.' He considers this 'a good thing,' as it means that his
subordinates' inherent energies will be concentrated on implementing
his philosophical ideas about education. Nancy is disappointed to hear
that she will not be a highly positioned society wife among a bevy of
other wives. However, her dismay is short-lived when she considers
the powerful influence her husband will exert on the culture of the
school and surrounding village.

What do you think about the language

in "Dead Men's Path?" How do you
analyse it?
Dead Mens Path by Chinua Achebe is a story that juxtaposes the
traditions of an African village with the contemporary ideas of the new,
young schoolmaster, Michael Obi. The language used by the narrator
emphasizes this divide. Michael is strong in his convictions, which is
evident early in the story when the narrator says, He was outspoken in
his condemnation of the narrow views of these older and often less
educated ones.

These views are exposed when Obi speaks to one of his teachers
about the ancient path through the schoolyard even though the teacher
attempts to explain how the path is significant to the villagers. In his
sarcastic tone, Michael Obi makes it clear that it is unacceptable. The
teacher informs the headmaster that there was trouble the last time
they tried to close the path.

It amazes me, said Obi to one of his teachers who had been three
years in the school, That you people allowed the villagers to make use
of this footpath. It is simply incredible.

When Obi meets with the village priest, who is an old man, the younger
man once again shows his distain saying about the seldom use path,
We cannot allow people to make a highway of our school compound.
As the priest tries to explain why the path is necessary Michael listens
with a smug look on his face and then, tells the priest in emphatic
language that his forward thinking school cannot tolerate such beliefs.

Michael Obi sarcasm and air of superiority are emphasized through his
dialogue with people and his distain is repaid with disaster.
What is the climax of the story Dead
Men's Path?
Michael Obi, the anti-hero in Dead Mens Path, is introduced as a
young and energetic newly appointed headmaster of Ndume Central
School. The school is known for being unprogressive and backward
in every sense. Highly ambitious and zealous, the twenty-six year old
young man joins the school with two aims:

A high standard of teaching was insisted upon, and the school

compound was to be turned into a place of beauty.

Until now Obi stands as an admirable man with a progressive and

modern outlook. But theres something about him that prevents
readers from appreciating him wholly as an ideal young man of the
modern era.

His condemnation of the narrow views of these older and often less
educated ones, and his denigration of "old and superannuated people
in the teaching field who would be better employed as traders in the
Onitsha market," make us suspicious about his real character. These
descriptions considerably hint at the tension about to build up.

What marks the turning point is Obis discovery of an almost disused

path from the village across the school compound. The path connects
the village with the graveyard. For the villagers the path occupies a
very special place in their lives. Its their strong belief that this path has
been used by their dead for ages. According to them, not only do their
ancestors visit them using this path, but it is the path of children
coming in to be born.

Although the ancestral path is hardly used, Obi is outraged learning

about its existence through the school premises. He immediately gets
it blocked by fencing it. This makes the villagers uneasy and the old
priest from the village arrives at the school to meet Obi in person. The
tension begins to mount further and the clash appears inevitable.

Prior to their meeting we are already informed that once there had
been a big row when the school authorities had tried to block the
path. On one side is the old priest who is carrying a stout stick. His
calm and composed manners reflect his experience and wisdom. His
sole intention is to sort out the matter, avoiding any kind of violence.
On the other side is the inflexible and insensitive headmaster, to whom
the villagers attachment to the path is a mere superstitious and
irrational belief. While the composed old man tries to persuade the
adamant Obi to reopen the path for the villagers, Obi scorns the old
man and his beliefs and refuses to budge.

The final statement by the priest, I have no more words to say, rings
out aloud and takes the action of the story to its climax. This is the
point of the highest tension in the story. At this point a reader is
completely hooked and he reads further only to discover the final
outcome of the clash between tradition and modernity.

In Chinua Achebe's short story Dead

Mens' Path, is there a symbolic
meaning to the statement Dead men
do not require footprints?"
Chinua Achebes Dead Mens Path is about a young, enthusiastic
Nigerian teacher sent with his wife to a remote village to modernize its
school only to clash head-on with the ancient tribal traditions he had
hoped to eradicate. The path in the title is literally just that: a path
that the local villagers believe is used by ancestors to visit and by the
deceased to depart. It is an extremely important component of their
existence, but Michael and Nancy Obi, the newly-arrived teacher and
his wife, hold such ancient beliefs in contempt. Achebe describes the
enthusiasm and arrogance his character brings to his new assignment,
with absolutely no regard for traditions or tribal customs that may seem
quaint to the Obis, but certainly are not to those to whom such beliefs
are sacred. This well-educated elite from the city has absolutely no
doubt that he knows whats best:

He had many wonderful ideas and this was an opportunity to put them
into practice. He had had sound secondary school education which
designated him a "pivotal teacher" in the official records and set him
apart from the other headmasters in the mission field. He was
outspoken in his condemnation of the narrow views of these older
and often lesseducated ones.

Nancy is the mirror-image of her husband in the arrogance she brings

to the village:
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. She began to see herself
already as the admired wife of the young head master, the queen of
the school.

With this introduction to his main characters, Achebe has set the stage
for the clash of cultures that most assuredly will occur. Discovering an
old path that traverses school grounds, Michael determines to destroy
it as one of those symbols of primitive beliefs he holds in disgust.
Expressing his thoughts aloud, with what he believes will be the
implications for his future should he countenance such ancient rituals,
he states:

"That was some time ago. But it [the path] will not be used
now," said Obi as he walked away. "What will the Government
Education Officer think of this when he comes to inspect the school
next week? The villagers might, for all I know, decide to use the
schoolroom for a pagan ritual during the inspection."

The village priest, upon learning of Michael and Nancys (and note, by
the way, the thoroughly modern, Westernized names Achebe employs
in naming these antagonists) destructive activities with regard to the
path, visits the school in an attempt to defend the need for the path:

"Look here, my son, said the priest bringing down his walkingstick,
this path was here before you were born and before your father was
born. The whole life of this village depends on it. 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 . . .

Mr. Obi listened with a satisfied smile on his face. 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."

There is, indeed, symbolic meaning in Michaels arrogant,

condescending statement that dead men do not require footpaths.
Achebe most definitely intends for this exchange between the priest
and the teacher to illuminate the conflict between modernity and
ancient customs and rituals the importance of which to local
communities should never be discounted. Michaels comment
symbolizes that arrogance that, common to the academic profession,
presents itself as learned yet is actually grounded in elitism and
ignorance. That the visit by Michaels superior does not go well, with
this new school administrator brought back down to earth, is plainly
evident in Achebes final sentence:

That day, the white Supervisor came to inspect the school and wrote a
nasty report on the state of the premises but more seriously about the
"tribalwar situation developing between the school and the village,
arising in part from the misguided zeal of the new headmaster."

It is kind of ironic that the white Supervisor actually gets it, given the
anti-colonial tone of Achebes story, but Michaels comment regarding
the footpath is emblematic of misbegotten attitudes on the part of
outside interlopers.

What is the moral of the story, 'Dead

Men's Path'?
The moral, or lesson of this story is about the importance of striking a
balance in life, of aiming for moderation - which the main character,
Michael Obie, emphatically does not do. The moral of the story is
shown in his downfall.

Obie, an idealistic, enthusiastic young headmaster, allows his idealism

to run away with him. He has grand visions of making his school a
modern, exemplary, progressive institution and he does not have time
for anything that he thinks runs counter to his vision. This arrogant
attitude leads him into conflict with the villagers whom he regards as
backward and superstitious, and he looks down on them instead of
properly listening to them and trying to work with them. The priest who
comes to see him points out the importance of toleration:

What I always say is: let the hawk perch and let the eagle perch.

In other words, people should allow different ways and customs to

exist side by side - which Obie is not prepared to do. He does not want
to let the villagers use a path that is sacred to their beliefs, as it cuts
across the new school grounds that he has designed. The villagers,
rebuffed, take their revenge by destroying the grounds. In the face of
this open conflict, Obie's superior dismisses him from his job for his
'misguided zeal' which has led to such problems in the local
community.
Obie, then, is punished for his hubris, his 'misguided zeal'. There was
nothing wrong with him wanting to improve his school, but he should
have tried to co-operate with those whose views differed from his own,
instead of forcefully implementing his own ideas over and above
everyone else's.

What is the theme and geographical

location of Chinua Achebe's "Dead
Men's Path?"
The location of Chinua Achebe's "Dead Men's Path" plays wholly into
to theme of the text as well. The story of Michael Obi, the Ndume
School, and the village shrine/cemetery takes place in Nigeria.
Obviously off the beaten path, the village and school are considered
(by Obi) to be backward, lacking in Christian faith, and lacking
progression.

The geographical location plays into the theme because of Obi's

ideology that the villagers need to, in essence, be saved from
themselves. He considers the villagers to backward in their religious
thought (honoring deceased ancestors and practicing animism). Obi
does not agree with the beliefs of the village, which is why he wires off
the cemetery. His intent to modernize the village does not allow them
to keep their current beliefs. Essentially, the theme of cultural conflict
resonates throughout the story illustrated through the conflict between
Obi and the villagers. The greatest action which speaks to the thesis is
the destruction of the school's hedges and one building (the villagers
simply refuse to conform).

What does the path symbolize in A

Dead Mans Path by Chinua Achebe?
Chinua Achebes Dead Mans Path portrays a cultural clash between
a headmaster who wants to bring his school up to modern standards
and the villagers who follow traditional animistic beliefs. The
headmaster Michael Obi wants to beautify the outside of the school as
well as improve the educational standards.

Neither Obi nor the villagers are willing to give in to change. Both
believe that they are right.
The villagers believed that there was an invisible path between the
villages burial ground and their worship area. It went through the
school yard. Specifically, it went through the flower beds that the
Michael Obi and his wife planted. Of course, the headmaster was
unaware of the dead mans path.

The dead mans path was an imaginary line between the villagers'
burial ground and their worship area. The path symbolized the
animistic beliefs of the villagers who believed in spirits and the
importance of the passage of the spirit to their resting place in the
burial ground. This was particularly important for the babies that
died. The traditions to these unsophisticated people were their
lives and tribal culture.

When the headmaster notices an old woman walking through the

flower beds, he is incensed and mentions it to another teacher. The
teacher tries to warn him that this path is important to the people.
There had already been an incident concerning the path which the
villagers won.

Choosing to ignore the fact the school serves the villagers, Obi places
a barrier of heavy sticks and barbed wired preventing passage through
the school yard by the villagers. The priest of the village comes to visit
Obi and try to tell him of the importance of the path. Once again, the
headmaster chooses to ignore the significance of the traditional path.

What you say may be true, replied the priest, but we follow the
practices of our fathers. 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.

The headmaster disregards the words of the priest.

Unfortunately for the family and for the school master, a woman dies in
childbirth. According to the villagers beliefs, the child would be unable
to go to the burial ground because the way was blocked by the school
barriers.

On the day the school was to be evaluated, Obi finds that his flower
beds have been destroyed and even one of the school building torn
down. The supervisor wrote a bad review of the schools grounds and
the headmaster for not working with the village to settle the problem.

A compromise would have been good on both the school master and
the village. From past history, the villagers were not going to give into
not being able to use the established path. It is important to learn from
the past and to work within the situation that a person is given. Obi
should have respected the beliefs of the townspeople.

Examine the contrasts the narrator

establishes between Michael Obi and
the villagers.
One contrast between Michael and the villagers is their understanding
of cultural identity. For Michael, indigenous cultural identity is
dismissed as "backwards" and "narrow views." Michael fails to see
anything of value in the Ndume way of life and in their perception of
reality. He enters with an external understanding of how reality should
be constructed and has little problem imposing this upon the villagers.
The villagers are shown to revere their cultural identity and view with
skepticism and disdain what Michael seeks to impose upon them.
Their forceful condemnation of his attitude ends up forming the crux of
the story's action.

Another contrast between both the villagers and Michael is their

understanding of spiritual notions of the good. The villagers are quick
to blame the closing of the path for the death of the young woman in
the village and the angering of the spiritual elders. This is contrasted
with Michael who refuses to believe in any such idea. The villagers'
excessive embrace of the supernatural and Michael's lack of it help to
provide another contrast that drives the story to its natural end.

In Dead Man's Path how does Achebe

uses setting, characters, or plot to
communicate the theme of continuity
and change in his story?
The key theme of continuity and change in this excellent tale is
communicated principally by the protagonist, Michael Obi, and his wife,
Nancy. Note their attitude about the backward school that they hope to
reinvigorate by the force of their personalities. They accept this job
because they want an opportunity to bring this school and its village
into the modern world, as they see it still being trapped in primitive and
superstitious ways. This of course introduces us to the massive conflict
between new European ways that are imposed upon native indigenous
cultural norms.

The way in which an old woman "trespasses" on school property on

her way back from a native shrine, even though she is just walking on
a sacred footpath, brings this conflict into the open. Michael Obi, as the
character representing change and forward thinking, therefore pits
himself against the various forces of tradition and continuity that are
ranged against him and will not embrace the new modern ways he
espouses as easily as he thinks they will. Therefore we can see this
theme is focused on through plot, character and setting in this text.

In "Dead Men's Path," how does

Michael Obi's attitude towards both
tradition and "modern ways" affect his
ability to make a fair and reasonable
compromise?
The problem with Michael Obi is that he is so focused on his
assignment of bringing the school into the modern world that he is
completely blind to the very real importance of traditional tribal ways
and beliefs on those he needs to work with in order to be successful.
As a result, when conflict quickly develops between himself and the
villagers over the sacred path that acts as a link between the village of
the living and the shrine where the dead are commemorated, he shows
a complete inability to compromise based on his faith in modern ways
and his condescending attitude towards the "primitive" (as he sees
them) beliefs of the villagers.

This explains his stubborn rejection of the village priest's pleas to try
and come to some sort of arragnement with the words "dead men do
not require paths." His mindset means that he and his dreams of
revolutionising the school are doomed before he even starts, and his
eventual dismissal is the obvious and inevitable ending to this story.

What are the conflicts in the short story

"Dead Men's Path"?
There is one main conflict, and a variety of other, smaller conflicts that
contribute to the main one.
The obvious conflict is the external conflict that results when the
Michael Obi's wife plants a garden over the path that connects the
village shrine to the place of burial. The priest visits Michael Obi and
explains the uses of the foothpath, and Michael Obi refuses to change
his mind about allowing the villagers to use it. This is an example of a
person versus person conflict.

There is also a person vs. society conflict. The "old way"--personified

by the foot path and the priest--clash with the "new way"--Michael Obi's
headstrong belief about not having the footpath go through the school
grounds. THis could also be a person vs. supernatural conflict,
because the supernatural "gets back" at Michael Obi by destroying the
school right before the government inspection happens.

All of these are examples of external conflicts.

The main conflict involves Obi's refusal to open the ancestral

pathway which connects to the universal conflict between
modernity and traditional cultures.

The main conflict surrounds a village footpath that travels through the
school compound connecting the villagers' shrine to their burial
grounds. Obi, a progressive headmaster, decides to block the path
because he doesn't want the villagers wandering on school grounds
during an inspection. After he closes the path, the village priest, Ani,
visits Obi and informs him that the walking path is an integral part of
their life. Ani says that ancestral spirits and future children travel back
and forth between the path. Obi, who does not believe in such spirits,
does not take the man seriously and refuses to open the path. The
next day a woman dies during childbirth, and the villagers seek
retribution by tearing down one of the school's buildings. Unfortunately,
the inspector writes a scathing review and blames Obi for inciting
conflict between the villagers and the school.

In the story "Dead Men's Path," what is

the moral?
A moral is a lesson that can be taken from a piece of literature. In the
case of this story, the clear lesson is that BALANCE is of the utmost
importance. Mr. Obi, the headmaster of the school, had grand plans
for his school; however, he insulted the villagers by cutting off their
path, which was of great significance to them, as it was said to link the
living to the dead. Obi disrespected their opinions, dismissing them
flippantly. As a result, Obi's flower gardens and hedges and one
building were destroyed by the villagers as revenge for insulting them
AND their dead ancestors. eNotes remarks that:

Ironically, the same energy and enthusiasm that raise Obi to the height
of his career are also responsible for his stoop-shoulderedness and
frailty, his premature aging, and his eventual tragic fall. His white
supervisor's negative report on the tribal-war situation developing
between the school and the village exposes the superficiality of Obi's
idealism. The once acclaimed pivotal teacher is then laid low by his
own misguided zeal. (eNotes)

Obi should have realized that the improvements to the school and the
ancient path could have co-existed. It did not have to be one or the
other.

What does the path symbolize in "Dead

Men's Path"?
The path in "Dead Men's Path" represents:

...the path's historical and spiritual significance as the sacred link

between the villagers, their dead ancestors, and the yet unborn.
("Dead Men's Path" Enotes)

This path was vitally important to the villagers and held much symbolic
importance, and because of their religious beliefs, was even more
important. Because the path was cordoned off by Obi, the villagers
saw that as a blatant sign of disrespect and they took matters into their
own hands. Later, Obi was dismissed because of his blatant disregard
for the villagers.

Is Michael Obi a villain in this story?

No, I would not characterize Michael Obi as a villain. A villain would typically be
considered inherently bad. He is, however, not very thoughtful or considerate
when it comes to the traditions and legends of the villagers. Despite being told
about the path that was sacred to them, he still has the fence put up so they
cannot cross it. This was extremely disrespectful and a great insult to the
villagers. He should have thought more carefully about this decision. Had he let
the path be, it would not have affected the school. He wanted to be in control
and he overstepped his boundaries. As a result, he is retaliated against and
some of the school is destroyed.
Why does Achebe say, "We lived at the
crossroads of cultures"?
In this piece of literature, you have the dichotomy of the newer, modern
world with its new school and more modern facilities and its
administration and new ways of thinking compared to the old world of
the villagers who still had very strong and genuine religious and
spiritual beliefs. The clash between those two worlds was a
resounding one. The shift from the old world to the newer, more
modernized ways was a huge one and it had big consequences. The
protagonist of the story, unfortunately, did not respect the villagers and
their ancient ways; he should have realized that the two worlds could
co-exist with a little thing called COMPROMISE.

What is the ideology of Michael Obi?

This story is about a young man and his dream of modernizing a
school in Africa. He has been chosen because of his energy and
enthusiasm. He wants to make a difference and bring a new ideology
of technology and modern ideas to the school. He immediately sets
out to change all of the customs and beliefs of this village as well as
the school. In a backlash effect of the village he finds himself at odds
with customs and superstitions. When he realizes that the villagers are
walking through the newly planted gardens of his beautifully
landscaped school compound, he closes the path to all of the villagers
and tells them to go around. He states "dead men don't need paths"
meaning that it is time for the villagers to stop looking to their dead and
look forward to a new and modern world. As fate would have it, the
night before a big inspection by his boss, the villagers tear up all of the
gardens and leave a mess. When the people who hired him learn of
the struggles between the school and the villagers Obi is fired.

How does achebe characterize Micheal

Obi? What are Obi's short comings?
Michael (Mike) Obi is the protagonist of the story, and his name,
representing an equal blend of European and African origins, is the first
thing that appears in the story.
If the story contains no stated moral, the biblical warning that Pride
goeth before a fall is implicit throughout, especially in the visions of
the future possessed by Michael Obi and his wife Nancy. Michael
represents, in small scale, the excesses of governmental bureaucracy;
his stated agenda is to inflict his modern methods on his colleagues
and neighbors with little attention to the cultural realities of the
community around him. His high-handedness turns on itself in the
storys conclusion, and he is amply paid back in his own arrogant coin.

Achebes use of detail, the barbed wire that blocks the path and the
comments of the Supervisor (who is, ironically, white) that Michael has
precipitated a tribal-war situation may be Achebes sly way of telling
us that the conflict between established tribal customs and modern
methods, so trivial here, may in fact lie behind the devastating civil
wars and tribal genocide that have plagued Africa since the end of the
colonial period.

Dead Mens Path enacts in miniature one of the central themes of

Achebes novelsthe clash between modern European ideas and
traditional African values, progressive international standards and
deeply rooted local custom. The storys protagonist, Michael Obi, is a
well-educated forward-thinking idealist with a passion for modern
methods. Quite intelligent and undoubtedly dedicated to education,
Obi is more comfortable in abstract thought than in facing the
complexities of real life. He doesnt notice unspoken feelings; for
example, his wifes considerable disappointment upon learning that the
other teachers are all unmarried. His view of the world is rational and
therefore incapable of fully understanding the parts of life ruled by
emotion, intuition, or custom. Obi looks down on the older
headmasters of the Mission schools. Note how Achebe subtly
undercuts Obi in the opening paragraphs. Only twenty-six, the newly
appointed headmaster appears much older with his stoop-shouldered
posture and frail build.

Having introduced his protagonist and set up the narrative premise,

Achebe focuses his story on a single incidentObis attempt to close
the footpath that the locals believe is used by dead and unborn souls
to enter the village. Obi uses rational, progressive arguments in
discussing the matter with the village priest (who ironically seems both
more rational and open-minded than the ideological headmaster).
What you say may be true, admits the priest, adding but we follow
the practices of our fathers. The results of Obis idealistic obstinacy
ultimately prove disastrous for both the school and his own career