Dead Mens Path

"DEAD MENS PATH"

The story I read didn't mean the same to me as it did to other opinions of people that read it. To me it meant that people are still resulting to violence instead of settling it in a proper manner. It might have been a tradition and have been there forever but now times have changed. If changed never happened then we wouldn't get anywhere in life. I think it was wrong what happened at the end and I don't think that the villagers won, I am sure even though obi will no longer be there the next person that does come along will continue to fight for what is right so I don't think this is and ever will be a win, win situation. The theme of old versus new is introduced in this story. One opinion is that the school is trying to educate the people of the area that the old superstitions are wrong including the ones about the pathway. The natives are not able to cope with this. They destroy the new so they can keep the old. The old traditions won here. Another opinion is that the old tradition wins, but that does not necessarily mean that the old tradition is right or that it is the best way of doing things. Tradition should have a place in the new way of doing things. It wouldn't have caused any real problems to leave the old trail open. The headmaster could even have built his beautiful gardens around it. His refusing to be more flexible resulted in the destruction of his campus and in his losing his job. I think the author is trying to show how even though we may learn that our traditions and culture might not be correct we must recognize it. We cannot forget or destroy the past to move on.

There are some opinions about the story and the message it seems to give that there is no wrong to people when they have strong beliefs in there tradition, and if it is threatened they will fight to keep it alive. Then there's some that say perhaps the newer generations should respect traditions, and old and new should compromise with one another. And there are also some opinions about the way that this