The short story "Dead Men's Path" is written by one of Africa’s most acclaimed writers, Chinua Achebe, who grew up in a Christian family. The main character in the story is Michael Obi, a young and energetic perfectionist who is excited about modernize everything of a traditional school after he got assigned as the new headmaster. Not a while into his job, Michael finds that along with his misguided enthusiasm, ignoring the traditions and beliefs of the villagers can have great consequences. The major theme of this story is the collision between new ideas and traditions. Society can move forward by adapting new ideas, but still maintain respect for past traditions and maintain cultural beliefs. The fact that Obi and his wife are obsessed with modernizing everything is pretty obvious in the story. After Obi was assigned the job of headmaster, he and his wife are both eager to bring new ideas and share the modern life with everyone. Chinua Achebe shows their modern enthusiasm when he writes: "We shall do our best,” Obi's wife replied. "We shall have such beautiful gardens and everything will be just modern and delightful…” (200). He also shows Obi's views of the traditionalist people by attacking their character referring to them as, "these old and superannuated people in the teaching field” (200). An unused path started the collision between new ideas and traditions. In time the gardens blossomed with beautiful red and yellow flowers. As Obi is admiring his work, he comes across an old woman from the village who walks straight across the flowers onto what Obe discovers to be an old faint almost unused path. The path here is a symbol of traditions and beliefs of the villagers. Obi speaks to a teacher and finds out exactly what the path was used for. "The path," the teacher said apologetically," appears to be very important to them. Although it is hardly used, it