Traditions throughout culture change with time, yet, in most instances, a handful of people refuse to change their methods or beliefs. In “Dead Man’s Path,” Chinua Achebe creates a changing society and presents a group of people who are unwilling to change their way of life and adapt. Achebe uses symbols, allusions, characters, and setting development to give the reader an interpretation on the changes made throughout society that creates a conflict between a new generation versus an old generation. In “A Dead Man’s Path,” Achebe uses the symbols of a path and a barbed wire fence to effectively capture the conflicting ideas between a new and an old generation. The importance of this path is maintained by Ani, the village priest, for he states that the village “depends on [the path because] our dead relatives depart by it and our ancestors visit us by it” proving that the path symbolizes an important belief (Achebe 596). In the exchange with Obi, Ani informs Obi about the importance of the tradition that the path possess and the importance of the path to the village, but Obi rejects this old way of life by placing a symbol in the way of the path: a barbed wire fence. The barbed-wire fence symbolizes divisiveness and hostility between the new methods presented by Obi and the traditional ways of the villagers. When Obi puts up the fence, he justifies his actions by saying these changes are for the best interest of the school, and argues that “dead men do not require