The Parable Story “Dead Men’s Path”
In this short story “Dead
Men’s Path,” Chinua Achebe gives the protagonist an exciting chance to fulfill
his dream. Michael Obi was fixed officially headmaster of Ndume Central School,
which was backward in every sense. He had to turn the school into a progressive
one, however the school received a bad report when the supervisor came to
inspect. Why did the school get a nasty report and Obi could not become a
glorious headmaster even though he put his whole life into it? In order to find
out the answer, we have to examine Michael Obi’s personality and the event that
made the supervisor to write an airier result.
Michael Obi was a secondary
school teacher. “The Ndume Central School had always been an unprogressive, so
the mission authorities decided to send a young and energetic man to run it”
(331). Obi was a juvenile and a jaunty man. Within Obi’s confidence, the reader
can see his ardent desire. “He had many wonderful ideas and this was an
opportunity to put them into practice” (331). By this golden chance he wanted to
show other people how a school should be run. Obi wanted “his associates to give
all their time and energy to the school” (331) because they were not married. He
and his wife were very excited to work for the school. They both had made a plan
to make the school modern and delightful. Even though Obi accepted his
responsibility with enthusiasm, he could not become a great principal. Why?
There should be some kind of obstacle in his plan.
Michael Obi had built a
miserable garden around the school. “Beautiful hibiscus and allamanda hedges in
brilliant red and yellow marked out the care- fully tended school compound from
the rank neighborhood bushes” (331-332). “ Obi had two aims. A high standard of
teaching was insisted upon and the school compound was to be turned into a place
of beauty” (331). One evening Obi saw an old woman from the village walking
slowly right across the compound. “On going up there he found faint signs of an
almost disused path from the village across the school compound to the bush on
the other side” (332). From one of his teachers, he discovered out that the path
connects the village shrine with the villagers’ place of burial. To close that
path, “Obi planted heavy sticks closely across the path at two places where it
entered and left the school premises. These were further strengthened with
barbed wire” (332). Since he was well prepared with all solutions to all
problems, how come he could not become a man of the school? Why did the
superintendent not like this passionate school?
The main reason the
supervisor did not write a decent report was the condition of the school
premises. When the Government Education Officer came to inspect the school, “the
beautiful hedges were torn up not just near the path, but right round the
school, and flowers were tripled to death. One of the school building was pulled
down” (333). The author did not tell us who lacerated this school. After reading
the story, we can tell that it was the people of the village, because “a young
woman in the village died in childbed. A diviner was immediately consulted and
he prescribed heavy sacrifices to propitiate ancestors insulted by the fence”
(333). Obi did not know that the villagers could do this; otherwise, he should
have found another way to stop the people until the supervisor came, but nothing
can stop the future.
Michael Obi’s hopes were achieved much earlier than he
expected, but his desires did not gain any success. He was blamed for the duff
result of the school and the affray within the village and the school. The
Government Education Officer did not write a good report, in addition,
“tribal-was situation developed in between the school and the village” (333).
Obi and his wife had set the fashion in everything. He had put his all efforts
to make the school marvelous and beautiful. Still, one morning, Obi woke up
among the ruins of his work.
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