Dead Men’s Path

Details of the kind and color of flowers planted in the garden are described more vividly than other details in the story and appear more than once. Mr. Obi enjoys admiring the “beautiful hibiscus and allamanda hedges in brilliant red and yellow” that separate the “civilized” compound from the “rank neighborhood bushes” (72). Here, Achebe contrasts the flowers’ beauty with the word “rank,” which evokes feelings of revulsion. This imagery highlights the imperial idea that Indigenous practices need to be replaced; in this case, the plants are native to neither England nor Nigeria and, like the couple’s dreams, prove to be fragile. The flowers are carefully tended and cultivated, and although the plants thrive for a time, they are trampled on by villagers walking through “marigold[s]” (72), which in Christianity are often associated with the Virgin Mary. When “the beautiful hedges were torn up” and “the flowers trampled to death” (74), Obi replaces them with barbed wire, a stark contrast to the flowers’ soft beauty.

There are three moments of foreshadowing in the story. The first happens when the teacher warns the headmaster about the “big row” (72) that occurred the last time the school tried to block access to