The Dead Mens Path Theme Analysis Religion Essay

The Dead Mens Path Theme Analysis Religion Essay Dead Mens Path is a short story written in 1972 by African Author Chinua Achebe. It is about Michael Obi, a young and energetic man excited about all things modern who is just assigned a position to run a traditional school. Not long into the job, he finds that along with his misguided zeal, ignoring the traditions of his people can have great consequences. Obi is a bright and enthusiastic young man who is excited to find out that he will be the new headmaster of a school that has been in desperate need of help for some time. Obi was considered a pivotal teacher and he and his wife are both forward thinking and eager to share the modern life with everyone. Chinua Achebe shows the Obis modern enthusiasm by writing: We shall do our best, she Obis wife) replied. We shall have such beautiful gardens and everything will be just modern and delightful He also shows Obis views of the traditionalist people by attacking their character referring to them as, these old and superannuated people in the teaching field. Of his two goals for the school, one was to make the grounds a place of beauty. An upcoming inspection was the perfect motivation to begin what he thought to be great improvements. 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 str aight across the flowers onto what Obe discovers to be an old faint almost unused path. Obi speaks to a teacher and finds out exactly what the path was used for. It amazes me, said Obi to one of the teachers who had been three years in the school, that you people allowed the villagers to make use of this footpath. It is simply incredible. He shook his head. The path, the teacher said apologetically, appears to be very important to them. Although it is hardly used, it connects the village shrine with their place of burial. Obi didnt care about the reason and for fear that the coming inspector may see people on school grounds who didnt belong, demanded that the footpath be closed off immediately regardless of warnings from the teacher. The path was then blocked with heavy logs and reinforced with barbed wire. A priest was sent by the outraged villagers to try and talk some sense into Obi, pressing upon him the significance that the path has not to just the villagers, but also the dead who walk the path.Look here my son, this path was here before you were born and before your father was born. The whole life of the village depends on it. Our dead relatives depart by it and our ancestors visit us by it. But most important, it is the path of children coming in to be born. Obi rejected the priests words and in mocking replied to him Dead men dont walk. he dismissed his ancestry and instead chose the modern way. The path remained blocked and a few days later a village woman died in childbirth. The villagers took that as a sign that if the path remains blocked they would suffer great misfortune. Believing that the mother would be unable to rest in peace and the child unable to walk the path and enter the world, the villagers became agitated and tore down a school building as well as everything used to block the path and the flowers planted to impress the inspector. When the inspector finally arrived, he was presented with grounds that were completely destroyed along w ith a headmaster who thought only about himself and erasing the past to become modern. In the story, with the descriptions of the pretentious headmaster and his lack of respect for the elders and their traditions the narrator clearly has taken sides with the villagers. Chinua Achebe writes, The whole purpose of our school is to eradicate such beliefs as that. Dead men do not require footpaths. The whole idea is just fantastic. Our duty is to teach your children to laugh at such ideas. The main point in question in the story is in reference to the villagers beliefs and customs and the importance it held in their lives. Obi was wrong in his thinking and in his methods, believing that he can just cut the people off from what in our time would be considered a funeral. When it comes to the destruction and rejection of something that was and is important to people such as traditions no matter how old the customs may be, nobody has the right to negate a persons background and nobody has the ability to remove a persons belief and substitute it with their own. An unfamiliar cul tures belief may seem fanciful but to those who believe it, it is as much a vital part of their lives as technology is in ours. The heart of a persons belief is in having faith although what you believe can never be proven. What happens in death is a perfect example of this. Nobody alive can know what happens after death so we are left with our imaginations to hope that our loved ones are in a better place rather than in the ground or left as ashes. People need that faith to carry on because at times the thought of never again seeing those people can be unbearable. Our ancestors traditions and customs are important because the only knowledge we have of things we have no proof on is in the things passed down for generations. Just as the story explained, the villagers were so strong in their beliefs of the path that when it became blocked they attacked the school and everything that was blocking the sacred path: The beautiful hedges were torn up not just near the path but right around the schoolflowers trampledone of the school buildings torn down The importance of a persons culture is more than just the faith of a single person, it connects a group of people who believe alike and allows them to work together with the same end results. As stated in Achebes Dead Mens Path, contemporary community shouldnt do as Obi and try to eradicate the core of a peoples beliefs which, with his mocking reply to the priest is just what he tried to do. Our duty is to teach your children to laugh at such ideas. It is important to remember and to honor traditions. Many people fight to keep their traditions alive, whether its an old woman making her 80th annual pilgrimage to a Mexican cemetery to light a candle at Dona Candelaria de Sapiens grave or Native American tribe members dressed in full ceremonial clothing dancing to celebrate the coming rain. In Achebes story, the people fought to keep the path free so that those who pass on can rest in peace and the traditions of the vill agers can carry on for generations to come, far beyond the lives of the priests, villagers and Obi.

Questions Kooistra Autogroep Essay

2. Evaluate the budgeting, performance measurement, and incentive systems used at Kooistra Autogroep. What changes would you recommend, if any? Budgeting system: The CEO introduced a formal annual budgeting process. The main target of this budgeting system was to determine the net profit targets for the year. The net profit target is the company’s revenue minus the controllable expenses. These targets were for the company’s departments and should help with decentralization of the company. The budgeting process was ment to be bottom-up. This means that the managers of the departments could prepare the budgets and the CEO and CFO then reviewed these budgets. Most managers are unexperienced with budgeting and the review of the CFO and CEO would lead to a discussion so that the managers would get more and more confident with budgeting. This would help the decentralization. The car industry is an industry, which is really dependable on the economic conditions. So the budget made at the beginning of the year is not always a feasible budget. Reviewing the budget a few times a year could change this. The CEO helps out sometimes when the budget target probably is not going to be made. But the managers cannot depend on this. Performance measurement: The new performance measurement now includes not only financial information but also nonfinancial information. The performance measurement system is used to communicate the company’s objectives to the personnel. The objects that are measured in the performance are the most important objectives. The performance measurements provide the managers with the information to do their job properly and it provides feedback to the top management about the performance of the managers. The company uses ‘Balanced Scorecard’ on a weekly basis. The balanced scorecard provides key metrics for the manager’s list of targets and it provides an indication of the progress towards budget target. Besides the balanced scorecard the managers get also a monthly report, which is more detailed about the company’s operations. Recommendation: the balanced scorecard is used to measure the manager’s performance for different factors. These factors are financial and nonfinancial. But it is not very clear what the targets are. Every  dealership has to have a return of sales of 2% but there is not given any further financial of nonfinancial performance indicator. Incentive system: A major change for the Kooistra Autogroep was the expansion of the pay-for performance system. The pay-for performance system already existed in the company but only for a few sales people. But this is limited and not fully covered for all the sales people. Because of the already excising contract and rejecting the pay-for performance bonus system not every sales person is accounted with pay for performance. This could lead to disorder and unfair situation. Because when its not going well with the economy and so with the dealerships sales the sales people with the pay for performance are accounted for the less sales. But the sales people with the normal salary contract are not accounted for the fewer sales. Also in normal situations the sales people with the pay-for performance system will try to do their best because their salary depends on their performance. While for the sales people with the normal contracts its not as much depended on their performance. For the management team the pay-for performance does its work for every member. So it’s fairer. The managers could also receive a bonus reduction when some criteria were not met. But it’s said that this would be a very subjective decision and it was not really clear on what criteria it depends. This should be changed and made clear on what criteria or totally deleted. Note: It is said that no bonus will be paid for below or above target performance, which is strange. Because as a company u would want to have above target performance. Further more the pay for performance system is a relatively unknown system in Dutch companies and the personnel of the company are not really pleased with this system. So it would be point to think about for the company to introduce the system quietly. This could be done for example by starting with a tradional bonus system and next to that also a pay for performance system. So using both systems for a few years and then switch to only a pay-for performance system.

Is Competition Good or Bad??

A continuing concern within physical education is the proper role and level of competition. Many of the abuses associated with organized sport are assumed to be the result of an overemphasis on competition, of a win-at-all -costs perspective. It is not uncommon for physical educators to advocate reducing competition, to replace competitive activities with cooperative activities, and to modify competitive activities in ways that reduce competitiveness.In its most extreme form, this kind of criticism within the physical-education profession suggests that competitive activities are harmful for children. The issue can be viewed from another perspective. The issue is not whether competition is all good or all bade, but rather is how we can eliminate bad competition and emphasize good competition. Good competition creates a festival atmosphere, with all the attending traditions, rituals, and celebrations.Good competition creates a forum within which children and youth can test themselves a gainst accepted standards of excellence. Good competition involves rivalry, but never the kind of rivalry in which one side can win only to the extent that the other side loses. Good competition also means striving within the rules and traditions to do the best you can and then, when the competition is over, understanding that the winning or losing have little meaning outside the competition itself.Bad competition, on the other hand, should be eliminated. Using the rules to gain an advantage, assuming that the only way to win is to have the best score, disregarding the traditions and rituals of the activity, and letting the outcomes affect you after the competition is over are all indications of inappropriate competition. Students in physical education should learn the differences between good and bad competition. The only way they can do this is to have these things pointed out to them as they experience good competition.

Flannery OConnor and Her Southern Gothic Style - 1187 Words

Flannery O’Connor, known for her original Southern Gothic style of prose has been titled â€Å"the master of the short story† (O’Connor). Her application of symbolism and the themes of Southern religion deem her as one of the most influential writers in American history. Born in Savannah, Georgia in 1925 and raised in the South, O’Connor was socialized as a member of the Catholic Church which proves evident throughout her writings. She studied journalism at the University of Iowa, but quickly migrated back to the South where she wrote most of her works: two novels, 32 short stories, and a number of commentaries and reviews. When diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, the same illness that killed her father when she was young, she†¦show more content†¦Tranquility is another moral of the South within Christianity. Although not associated with Southern religion, tranquility is necessary in the way of maintaining peace by not causing trouble, a Southern mother’s favorite phrase, and especially avoiding disturbances on Sundays, the Sabbath day. Tranquility, for example, exists as the peace in sleepy towns. According to O’Connor, peace can be difficult to find, as avowed by J. John of Challenge Newsline, â€Å"in a hectic world full of stress, tranquility has become one of the most valuable of commodities,† or it can award itself upon people of faith, as in most of her stories (â€Å"Pause for†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). People of Christianity uphold tranquility as a standard for other religious people surrounding themselves. During the scene in â€Å"Good Country People† when the bible salesman approaches Mrs. Hopewell about purchasing bibles, she does not accept the invitation, but agrees with him that â€Å"good country people are the salt of the Earth† (O’Connor 188). 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