Dead Men's Path - Chinua Achebe

     I found this story really interesting and I found myself to really enjoy it. Michael Obi is the new headmaster at Ndume Central School and he has high expectations and he is very outspoken. There was a path from the village across the school compound to the bush on the other side. Michael Obi looked out the window one day and saw a "woman from the village hobble right across the compound, through a marigold flower-bed and the hedges." He was amazed that teachers who had been working there for three years had let the villagers make use of the footpath. The teachers said that the pathway was important to the villagers, but Obi said "And what has that got to do with this school?" Michael Obi decided to close off the pathway with heavy sticks and barbed-wire. Three days later the village priest called the headmaster to talk about why he closed off the pathway. The village priest is an old man that walked with a slight-stoop. He tried to explain to Michael that the path was there before he was born and before his father was born. The whole life of the village depends on it. He tried to explain that relatives depart by it and ancestors visit their family by it. He also explained that the path was for children coming into the world to be born. Michael Obi didn't agree with him at all. He felt that the whole purpose of a school was to learn, he felt that "Dead men do not require foot paths."Michael wouldn't budge, he felt that the school compound could not be a thoroughfare and it was against his regulations. Two days after their conversation, a woman died during childbirth. When Obi woke up the next morning the school was ruined. The beautiful hedges were torn up near the path and right around the school. The flowers were trampled and one of the school buildings was torn down. 
    The village priest is a foil to Michael Obi. They both symbolize different things. Michael Obi is all about the new ways; technology and modernity. While the village priest is all about the old ways; culture, tradition, the path and the people. At the beginning of the story Michael Obi was characterized as stoop-shouldered, deep set eyes and he looked down upon people who were less educated. The word "stooped" means that Michael Obi is going to turn into the old man because he too is stoop-shouldered. He is aging beyond his years. 
    I would recommend this story because it is thought provoking. It requires the reader to find the figurative meaning and not just the literal meaning. All in all, I genuinely enjoyed this story.