Forward Across Graves. Chinua Achebe's “Dead Men's Path” as an Example for a Cultural Clash

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2011 im Fachbereich Literaturwissenschaft - Afrika, Note: 2,3, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: In the following paper the author wants to explain the main conflict shown in the short story "Dead Men's Path" by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, bring it into context to his biograph and constantly recurring mistakes mankind makes on the other hand. In western society every woman and every man is taught that it is of utmost importance to reach one´s goals and become successful is one of the main fields of life. As a result, many young people fight for their dreams neither looking left or right. Throughout history, progress and innovation were two of the most important catchphrases and through all times in history the “more educated and more modern” people thought it was the most important thing to bring their new knowledge, lifestyle and ideas to the more backward ones since that would make their life so much better. But just these notions are wrong. Contact with other cultures and bringing new ideas doesn´t change minds! And exactly this is the main theme in the short story “Dead men´s path” by Chinua Achebe which was published in 1953. This issue, Achebe points out, has its roots in his own biography and is a recurrent theme of many of his novels and poems.