The Dead Mens Path Theme Analysis Religion Essay

The deceased Mens Path Theme Analysis Religion hearDead Mens Path is a short floor written in 1972 by African Author Chinua Achebe. It is ab come out Michael obeah, a young and prompt man horny about all things modern who is tho designate a position to run a traditional school. Not want into the job, he finds that along with his misguided zeal, ignoring the traditions of his tribe can have dandy consequences.Obi is a bright and enthusiastic young man who is excited to find out that he will be the new victor of a school that has been in desperate need of help for rough beat. Obi was considered a pivotal teacher and he and his wife atomic number 18 both forward thinking and eager to share the modern conduct with everyone. Chinua Achebe shows the Obis modern enthusiasm by writing We shall do our best, she Obis wife) replied. We shall have such beautiful gardens and everything will be save modern and delightful He also shows Obis views of the traditionalist people by at tacking their character referring to them as, these elder and superannuated people in the teaching field. Of his two goals for the school, one was to hit the grounds a ramble of beauty. An upcoming inspection was the perfect motif to begin what he plan to be great improvements. In time the gardens blossomed with beautiful red and yellow flowers. As Obi is admiring his work, he comes across an nonagenarian woman from the village who walks straight across the flowers onto what Obe discovers to be an old faint almost unused path. Obi speaks to a teacher and finds out exactly what the path was used for. It amazes me, said Obi to one of the teachers who had been triad years in the school, that you people allowed the villagers to make use of this footpath. It is simply incredible. He shook his head. The path, the teacher said apologetically, appears to be very important to them. Although it is scarce used, it connects the village shrine with their place of burial. Obi didnt care about the mind and for fear that the coming inspector whitethorn see people on school grounds who didnt belong, demanded that the footpath be closed take away outright regardless of warnings from the teacher. The path was then blocked with heavy logs and reinforced with frosty wire. A priest was sent by the outraged villagers to strain and chide some sense into Obi, pressing upon him the significance that the path has not to merely the villagers, but also the dead who walk the path.Look here(predicate) my son, this path was here before you were born and before your father was born. The whole life of the 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. Obi rejected the priests words and in mocking replied to him Dead men dont walk. he dismissed his ancestry and instead chose the modern way. The path remained blocked and a few days later a village woman died in childb irth. The villagers took that as a sign that if the path remains blocked they would buzz off great misfortune. Believing that the mother would be unable to rest in peace and the child unable to walk the path and enter the world, the villagers became provoke and tore down a school building as strong as everything used to block the path and the flowers planted to impress the inspector. When the inspector finally arrived, he was presented with grounds that were completely destroyed along with a headmaster who thought only about himself and erasing the past to become modern.In the story, with the descriptions of the pretentious headmaster and his lack of respect for the elders and their traditions the narrator clearly has taken sides with the villagers. Chinua Achebe writes, The whole purpose of our school is to eradicate such beliefs as that. Dead men do not require footpaths. The whole idea is equitable fantastic. Our duty is to teach your children to laugh at such ideas. The mai n headland in question in the story is in reference to the villagers beliefs and usance and the importance it held in their lives. Obi was wrong in his thinking and in his methods, believing that he can just cut the people off from what in our time would be considered a funeral. When it comes to the destruction and rejection of something that was and is important to people such as traditions no matter how old the impost may be, nobody has the right to negate a persons background and nobody has the cogency to remove a persons belief and substitute it with their own. An unfamiliar cultures belief may seem fanciful but to those who believe it, it is as much a vital part of their lives as technology is in ours. The heart of a persons belief is in having credit although what you believe can never be proven. What happens in death is a perfect example of this. Nobody alive can know what happens after death so we are unexpended with our imaginations to hope that our loved ones are i n a better place rather than in the ground or left as ashes. quite a little need that faith to carry on because at times the thought of never again seeing those people can be unbearable. Our ancestors traditions and customs are important because the only knowledge we have of things we have no proof on is in the things passed down for generations. Just as the story explained, the villagers were so strong in their beliefs of the path that when it became blocked they attacked the school and everything that was barricade the sacred path The beautiful hedges were bust up not just near the path but right around the schoolflowers trampledone of the school buildings torn down The importance of a persons culture is more than just the faith of a single person, it connects a group of people who believe similar and allows them to work together with the same end results. As stated in Achebes Dead Mens Path, contemporary community shouldnt do as Obi and try to eradicate the core of a peoples beliefs which, with his mocking reply to the priest is just what he tried to do. Our duty is to teach your children to laugh at such ideas. It is important to remember and to honor traditions. Many people fight to deliver their traditions alive, whether its an old woman making her 80th annual pilgrimage to a Mexican cemetery to light a candle at Dona Candelaria de sapiens grave or Native American tribe members dressed in full ceremonial clothing dancing to celebrate the coming rain. In Achebes story, the people fought to keep the path free so that those who pass on can rest in peace and the traditions of the villagers can carry on for generations to come, far beyond the lives of the priests, villagers and Obi.