dead poets society final essay

Dead Poets Society Ending Explained: The Powerful Play Goes On

"Dead Poets Society" is one of a choice number of films that's defined almost entirely by its ending . That iconic final scene isn't easy to forget, even for those who watched the film for the first time in 10th grade English class or some such equivalent. The image of once-timid prep school boys standing atop their desks to pay tribute to their recently-fired English teacher, Mr. Keating (Robin Williams), is meant to invoke a sense of purpose. It's meant to stir up your emotions and stay with you for the rest of your life, even as the broad strokes of the film eventually fade into hazy memory. Without that "O, Captain, my Captain" moment, "Dead Poets Society" might have been a very different film . But it's not the only one that shaped the film into the classic it became.

Like with all good stories, the ending is merely a culmination of moments. It only packs such a punch because of everything that had to happen before it, and as pedestrian as the events of "Dead Poets Society" may seem — at least, leading up to the shocking suicide in the final act — a lot really does happen, if only beneath the surface. It makes "Dead Poets Society" so much more than a quintessential high school movie , including a commentary on a major societal shift, as well as the cycle of abuse perpetuated by a culture of toxic masculinity.

Words and ideas can change the world

Peter Weir's 1989 film takes place at Welton, a prestigious, all-boys boarding school with strict traditions and even stricter staff. The story begins as the class of 1959 descends onto campus for the fall semester. With the new academic year also comes a brand new teacher, Keating ( a career-best Robin Williams ), who makes quick work of radicalizing his first class of prospective lawyers and doctors. Keating himself once attended "Hell-ton," so he understands the trappings of its suffocating curriculum all too well. He wants these boys to find their voices while they're young. The longer they allow the toxic culture at Welton to suppress their spirits, the harder it will be for them to think for themselves when they reach adulthood.

Keating's unorthodox methods encourage the rebirth of his unofficial, one-time club: the titular Dead Poets Society. Keating and his peers first founded the group to escape the monotony of their day-to-day academia, to "suck the marrow out of life." It's a principle that makes a big impression on certain members of his class, namely Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard), his roommate Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke), and friends Charlie Dalton (Gale Hansen), Knox Overstreet (Josh Charles) and Steven Meeks (Allelon Ruggiero).

The newly founded Dead Poets Society adopts Keating's mantra, "carpe diem," in ways that only teenage boys can. Charlie is arguably Keating's most passionate disciple, staging elaborate campaigns to bring female students to Welton and even adopting a new moniker, Nuwanda. Knox uses the well-known power of poetry to win over a girl at a neighboring school. And then there's Neil, who seems like the last person in need of Keating's help, at least on the surface. Deep down though, the exact opposite is true: while he's a talented student and a natural-born leader, he frequently has to set aside his personal aspirations and do what his overbearing father (Kurtwood Smith) tells him.

In normal circumstances, Neil would concede to his dad without question. Until he graduates from Welton, then college and ( eventually ) medical school, his life is not his own. It's only after Keating's lessons start to sink in that Neil realizes he can live a different way, without submitting to his dad. He auditions for a local production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in an effort to take control of his life again. The only problem: he does so behind his father's back, and it backfires spectacularly when he discovers the truth and demands Neil drop out of the production.

It's this conflict that demonstrates Neil's half-formed approach to Keating's philosophy. Like other members of the Dead Poets Society, he largely fails to absorb the true essence of "carpe diem." Honoring your inner truth and shunting the status quo are both vital to seizing the day, but not without an understanding of the consequences. "There's a time for daring," Keating tells his class, "and there's a time for caution. A wise man understands which is called for."

If we shadows have offended...

Keating tries to encourage temperance and patience in his students, especially when Neil comes to him with his dilemma. In order for Neil to actually find the freedom he's been searching for, Keating says, he has to confront his father. Even if Mr. Perry can't empathize with his son, it isn't the end of the world. His "indentured servitude" won't last forever: soon he'll be free to star in whatever play he likes. It's a nice sentiment, but a totally foreign concept for Neil, who can't see beyond his own suffocating reality. He feels trapped no matter what he does, and that feeling only increases his desperation to break free.

This is, ironically, what makes Todd's role in the story so important. He's Neil's foil in every way, as both characters represent the different ways that shame can manifest within a person. Todd's shame keeps him putting his ideas and emotions out into the world. "Mr. Anderson thinks that everything inside of him is worthless and embarrassing," Keating very astutely observes. And Neil, for all his inner fire, is made to feel the same from his father.

Despite his projected confidence, Neil also struggles to prove his worth — he's just much better at hiding it. He is, as Keating later points out, a very talented actor. He's been acting his whole life, playing the part of the dutiful son, the Mr. Future Doctor of his dad's dreams. But after getting a taste of freedom, he realizes he can't keep acting any longer, especially not with the threat of military school — and 10 more years in "service" to his dad — looming over his head.

A quiet flame

After his final confrontation with Mr. Perry, Neil can only see one way to escape, to finally be free on his own terms. His suicide understandably sends shockwaves through Welton, and Headmaster Nolan (Norman Lloyd) works quickly to restore "order" in the wake of the tragedy. He implicates Keating in Neil's death, and threatens the remaining Society members with expulsion if they don't corroborate his story.

With Charlie expelled, Keating sacked, and Nolan poised to replace him as English teacher, the status quo is all but restored — and it's here that the focus shifts almost entirely to Todd. Out of everyone in the Dead Poets Society, he was the most resistant  to Keating's teachings. Of all his friends, he was most likely to shrink away from a challenge. It's not until he's presented with the most difficult challenge of all — to honor truth, consequence be damned — that he's able to demonstrate a complete understanding of "carpe diem."

Keating sees his class for the last time when he returns to pick up the last of his belongings, and there, Todd finds the courage to come clean about Nolan's scheme. What happens next — that aforementioned "O Captain, my Captain" moment — is a symbol of the effect that Keating had on his students, Todd especially. He can't take back what he did (and he may very well face expulsion for what he does after) but the principles he's learned have lit a fire within him, and it won't be an easy one to snuff out.

O Captain, My Captain

"Dead Poets Society" contends with a tricky legacy today. Its status as a pop culture staple makes it overrated in some circles, and its focus on the white male elite — tragic as their individuals upbringings are — raises concerns about its lack of diversity . But these critiques come from examining the film through a modern lens. It's easy to dismiss the film for its female representation (or lack thereof), to pick at its one-note antagonists. But it's also important to keep the setting in perspective. "Dead Poets" takes place in the late '50s, when women were discouraged from pursuing higher education, and schools in general were less integrated. Post-War America had only just begun to move away from conservatism and embrace romanticism . It was a different time, and sure, most of the characters in the film are either archetypes or ciphers — but perhaps that's why it's still so evocative today.

"Dead Poets" deals with a period of time when most of us are trying to discover who we are. Life is hard, our emotions are overwhelming, and every setback feels like the end of the world. The film may feel cringey or old-fashioned now, but it's only because we've since learned to contextualize the suffocating bind of adolescence, or family drama, or unrequited high school love. If we try, we can probably still remember how it felt to hear Keating's mantra for the first time, or how it felt when our own teachers recognized greatness in us. "Dead Poets" has captured that feeling in a bottle. It serves as a reminder of some of Keating's best advice to his students (lifted from Whitman, of course): "That life exists, and identity. That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse."

Movie Reviews

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"Dead Poets Society" is a collection of pious platitudes masquerading as a courageous stand in favor of something: doing your own thing, I think. It's about an inspirational, unconventional English teacher and his students at "the best prep school in America" and how he challenges them to question conventional views by such techniques as standing on their desks. It is, of course, inevitable that the brilliant teacher will eventually be fired from the school, and when his students stood on their desks to protest his dismissal, I was so moved, I wanted to throw up.

Peter Weir's film makes much noise about poetry, and there are brief quotations from Tennyson, Herrick, Whitman and even Vachel Lindsay, as well as a brave excursion into prose that takes us as far as Thoreau's Walden. None of these writers are studied, however, in a spirit that would lend respect to their language; they're simply plundered for slogans to exort the students toward more personal freedom. At the end of a great teacher's course in poetry, the students would love poetry; at the end of this teacher's semester, all they really love is the teacher.

The movie stars Robin Williams as the mercurial John Keating, teacher of English at the exclusive Welton Academy in Vermont. The performance is a delicate balancing act between restraint and schtick.

For much of the time, Williams does a good job of playing an intelligent, quick-witted, well-read young man. But then there are scenes in which his stage persona punctures the character - as when he does impressions of Marlon Brando and John Wayne doing Shakespeare.

There is also a curious lack of depth to his character compared with such other great movie teachers as Miss Jean Brodie and Professor Kingsfield. Keating is more of a plot device than a human being.

The story is also old stuff, recycled out of the novel and movie " A Separate Peace " and other stories in which the good die young and the old simmer in their neurotic and hateful repressions. The key conflict in the movie is between Neil ( Robert Sean Leonard ), a student who dreams of being an actor, and his father ( Kurtwood Smith ), who orders his son to become a doctor and forbids him to go onstage. The father is a strict, unyielding taskmaster, and the son, lacking the will to defy him, kills himself. His death would have had a greater impact for me if it had seemed like a spontaneous human cry of despair, rather than like a meticulously written and photographed set piece.

Other elements in the movie also seem to have been chosen for their place in the artificial jigsaw puzzle. A teenage romance between one of the Welton students and a local girl is given so little screen time, so arbitrarily, that it seems like a distraction. And I squirmed through the meetings of the "Dead Poets Society," a self-consciously bohemian group of students who hold secret meetings in the dead of night in a cave near the campus.

The society was founded by Keating when he was an undergraduate, but in its reincarnate form it never generates any sense of mystery, rebellion or daring. The society's meetings have been badly written and are dramatically shapeless, featuring a dance line to Lindsay's "The Congo" and various attempts to impress girls with random lines of poetry. The movie is set in 1959, but none of these would-be bohemians have heard of Kerouac, Ginsberg or indeed of the beatnik movement.

One scene in particular indicates the distance between the movie's manipulative instincts and what it claims to be about. When Keating is being railroaded by the school administration (which makes him the scapegoat for his student's suicide), one of the students acts as a fink and tells the old fogies what they want to hear. Later, confronted by his peers, he makes a hateful speech of which not one word is plausible except as an awkward attempt to supply him with a villain's dialogue. Then one of the other boys hits him in the jaw, to great applause from the audience. The whole scene is utterly false and seems to exist only so that the violence can resolve a situation that the screenplay is otherwise unwilling to handle.

"Dead Poets Society" is not the worst of the countless recent movies about good kids and hidebound, authoritatian older people. It may, however, be the most shameless in its attempt to pander to an adolescent audience. The movie pays lip service to qualities and values that, on the evidence of the screenplay itself, it is cheerfully willing to abandon. If you are going to evoke Henry David Thoreau as the patron saint of your movie, then you had better make a movie he would have admired. Here is one of my favorite sentences from Thoreau's Walden, which I recommend for serious study by the authors of this film: " . . . instead of studying how to make it worth men's while to buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them." Think about it.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Dead Poets Society (1989)

130 minutes

Robin Williams as John Keating

Robert Sean Leonard as Neil Perry

Ethan Hawke as Todd Anderson

Josh Charles as Knox Overstreet

Gale Hansen as Charlie Dalton

Dylan Kussman as Richard Cameron

Directed by

Produced by.

• Steven Haft
• Paul Junger Witt
• Tony Thomas
• Tom Schulman
• William Anderson

Photography by

• Maurice Jarre

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Dead Poets Society (1989): Taking the Road Less Traveled by

“Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.”

Dead Poets Society is yet another of my favorite films. When I watched it, I remember chiding myself for having deferred watching it for so long. I wished some teacher had told us about the movie in school. I felt like someone should have inspired me and kindled the passion for poetry in the same manner as is shown in the movie. But as they say, every cloud has a silver lining. I watched it when I had turned to teaching as a profession. Teaching English that too! The movie thus, undoubtedly, struck a deep chord.

For me, the tone was set right in the beginning. The convent school atmosphere – bagpipes in the opening scene, school auditorium, dormitories, emphasis on discipline and rigorous academics – instantly reminded me of my school St. Joseph’s Convent. I had a feeling that I would love the movie.

Directed by Peter Weir, the movie is based on the theme of Carpe Diem (Seize The Day). Professor John Keating ( Robin Williams ) returns to his alma mater – the old-fashioned, aristocratic, highly regarded all boys-boarding school ‘Welton Academy’– to teach English.

In his introductory class, he takes the students out into the hallway and asks them to ‘peruse the faces of students from the past years’. In an effort to drive home the point of Carpe Diem, he says, “They’re not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they’re destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? – – Carpe – – hear it? – – Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.”

Keating’s teaching methods are avant-garde and his ideas do not conform to Welton’s established rules and traditions. He teaches poetry in a very unconventional manner and inspires his students to think for themselves. For instance, unhappy with the technical and methodical analysis of poetry by J. Evans Pritchard in the introduction of the poetry textbook, he asks the students to rip out the entire introduction. The students are astonished and hesitate to do so. He then tells them, “It’s not the Bible, you’re not gonna go to Hell for this.”

Keating wants the students to believe in themselves and their dreams. The movie is about these students who are grappling with teenage anxieties in general and their own problems in particular. Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard) is vivacious, outgoing and realizes that acting is his calling. (I like Neil’s expression of joy – giggling and stamping his feet – on having got the part of Puck. Such childlike enthusiasm!) However, he has no say in front of his authoritarian father who wants him to study medicine for all practical purposes. This is the story of so many children even today. Parents pushing their child in a direction they deem fit regardless of the child’s wishes, dreams, and aspirations. An absolute contrast is Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke), the shy observer who is scared of expression. His elder brother was a Welton valedictorian and hence both his parents and the school have great expectations from him. Yet another common scenario where a child is bogged down by undue pressure!

Knox Overstreet (Josh Charles) epitomizes the ‘intensely in love’ youth and makes all effort to woo his lady love. Charlie Dalton (Gale Hansen) is the quintessential rebel who believes in living on the edge. He tries to pull off the ‘phone call from God’ stunt in the end but even Keating reproaches him. The other three characters who are integral to the story are the academically gifted Steven Meeks (Allelon Ruggiero), traditionalist Richard Cameron (Dylan Kussman) and Gerard Pitts (James Waterston).

Inspired by Keating’s lessons, these students revive the Dead Poets Society of which Keating himself was a member during his schooldays; a secret literary society which according to Keating “was dedicated to sucking the marrow out of life.” He explains further, “And, believe me, we did not simply read. We let it drip from our tongues like honey. Women swooned, spirits soared… Gods were created, gentlemen!” The students conduct their meetings in a cave in the woods.

The story proceeds seamlessly while the plot moves forward. Keating’s unorthodox teaching methods do not go down well with the authorities. A dramatic scenario gives the headmaster Mr. Gale Nolan (Norman Lloyd) a chance to question Keating and his ways. Saying beyond this would be giving away the entire plot and I for sure don’t intend to do that.

Talking about performances, it is always a treat to watch Robin Williams! This is one of his finest performances. The tenderness, passion, and humor in his character make us all wish we had a teacher like him. All the students are excellent in their roles. I especially liked the demure and introvert Ethan Hawke. I first watched him in Before Sunrise and I loved the movie and him. But such a mature performance at a young age; he really has the depth in his acting.

Dead Poets Society has many beautiful moments and wonderfully captured shots. Two scenes are particularly visually appealing. One is when Knox Overstreet rides his bike down the hill, scattering a flock of geese which fly up into the amber sunset. The other is the soccer game where after scoring the winning goal the students hoist Mr. Keating onto their shoulders. The backdrop is of the red sunset against the trees. Both these scenes are picturesque and a photographer’s delight! The last scene where students stand on their desk as a mark of love and respect for Keating is my favorite. The cave scenes are also wonderfully done. Maurice-Alexis Jarre’s soundtrack in the film is soothing and melodious. I have always been a fan of the Scottish highland bagpipes and they have been used so beautifully.

The movie also has some remarkable dialogues and I have mentioned some in the course of the review. There are so many other encouraging lines from Keating that continue to hold true even today. An example is when he says, “Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Don’t be resigned to that. Break out!” How I agree with him!

About the theme, I myself believe in Carpe Diem. In fact, this belief led me to start Strip Off Slumber – a platform to encourage people to live their dreams. It pains me when I see people slogging and leading a mechanical life. While a majority have reconciled themselves and are content with it, there still are many who are unhappy. The movie encourages young minds to have a mind of their own but this is universal and applies to everyone.

The film was nominated for four Academy Awards. Tom Schulman wrote the script based on his life at the Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, Tennessee and won a deserved “Best Screenplay” Oscar. Robin Williams was nominated for the “Best Actor in a Leading Role” but lost out to Daniel Day-Lewis for the latter’s spectacular performance as Christy Brown in My Left Foot. The movie though ought to have won the Oscar for “Best Picture” but the ways of the Academy Awards are mostly out of my comprehension. So never mind that! Peter Weir’s was the fourth nomination for “Best Director”. After watching this and The Truman Show, I am very keen on exploring his other works.

To sum up, Dead Poets Society is an inspirational, moving drama which raises pertinent questions about our approach towards education and life in general. It is a fitting tribute to the profession of teaching. It reminded me of Mona Lisa Smile, another all-time favorite, in more ways than one. Though under-rated (latter even more so), both these movies will continue to be my favorites. It surely inspires me to invoke the passion for poetry and literature in my students. Not that I hadn’t been doing it, but it just drives that zeal further.

Author: Rakhi Garg

Rakhi has a passion for varied arts – cinema, music, photography, books to name a few. she believes that one should follow one’s heart and passion. she herself does a little bit of everything., dead poets society links: imdb , wikipedia, where to watch dead poets society (1989), trending right now.

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Dead Poets Society

By peter weir, dead poets society quotes and analysis.

But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen. You hear it?... Carpe... Hear it?... Carpe. Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary. John Keating

This quote demonstrators that Keating appreciates the history and legacy of Welton as much as his fellow faculty members, but that rather than let it intimidate his students, he uses it to inspire them. His view appears to be that the boys should follow in the footsteps of those who came before them not because tradition is the best course of action, but because they are all members of the human race, and the passion and excitement for life that they all share is what makes them special.

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. John Keating

One of the movie’s most famous quotes, Keating here acknowledges that many of his students may not care about his preaching about the humanities. After all, Welton prides itself on its ability to churn out doctors, lawyers, and other well-respected professionals. Intuitively, many of its current students are on the path to these careers and so don’t need art and poetry to succeed. Keating therefore reminds the students of why they’re doing what they’re doing, and working as hard as they are. He introduces the radical notion that they’re prestigious and impressive future careers may not actually be the end goal of their lives, but rather the means to living as full a life as possible.

This is a battle, a war, and the casualties could be your hearts and souls. John Keating

A somber moment of foreshadowing, Keating unknowingly references the eventual loss of Neil’s life in this quote. While his words “battle” and “war” refer to many things, they draw a parallel to the fight that many of the boys have with the conservative authority that dominates their life at Walton. Their hunger to break free from this authority becomes a battle in its own right, one that ultimately costs Neil his life and breaks his friends’ hearts.

McAllister: "Show me the heart unfettered by foolish dreams and I'll show you a happy man." John Keating: "But only in their dreams can men be truly free. 'Twas always thus, and always thus will be." McAllister: Tennyson? John Keating: No, Keating. McAllister and Keating

Keating is undoubtedly different from his fellow teachers in many ways, and this exchange between him and Mr. McAllister illustrates an example of how. While McAllister feels that the Welton boys need structure set out for them, whereas dreams may “fetter” their hearts, Keating argues that they should use their dreams to be free, and does so with an original quote, whereas McAllister’s was borrowed from Lord Alfred Tennyson. Not only does the content of his response demonstrate his alternate views of how the boys should be educated, but the nature of the quote itself does as well.

For the first time in my whole life, I know what I wanna do! And for the first time, I'm gonna do it! Whether my father wants me to or not! Carpe diem! Neil Perry

Neil’s enthusiasm at the prospect of becoming an actor demonstrates both the passion brimming within him and the influence of Mr. Keating to bring it to the surface. This is especially true with his exclamation of “Carpe Diem,” a direct reference to Keating’s teachings. The tragic irony here, of course, is that Neil is ultimately unable to do what he wants as a result of his father’s strict hold over him.

I'm exercising the right not to walk. Charlie Dalton

Ever the rebel, Charlie demonstrates at many points throughout the film how quick he is to get on board with Mr. Keating’s unorthodox teaching methods. Even before the two meet, Charlie establishes himself as the slacker when the boys discuss their academic prowess in Neil and Todd’s room on move-in day. The above quote is not only consistent with his slacker character, but also demonstrates his understanding of Keating’s lesson in choosing to have his own style of walking be one of stillness.

Now we all have a great need for acceptance, but you must trust that your beliefs are unique, your own, even though others may think them odd or unpopular, even though the herd may go, 'that's baaaaad.' John Keating

This quote nicely sums up what Keating hopes for the boys: that they’ll become individual free thinkers. It’s the lesson that he believes in perhaps most strongly, but also the most dangerous one in the long run, as it’s the one that causes the most friction with Welton’s strict adherence to uniformity and tradition.

Neil Perry: So what are you going to do? Charlie? Charlie Dalton: Dammit, Neil, the name is Nuwanda. Neil Perry and Charlie Dalton

Charlie’s interrogation by Headmaster Nolan is a crucial turning point in the film because it’s the first time the boys’ newfound hunger to be free thinkers and poets rubs up against the administration’s strict ideologies about conformity and tradition. Here, when Charlie corrects Neil, he indicates that not even a beating from the headmaster could change the fact that he 1. is loyal to his fellow poets, and 2. wishes to keep the name that the Society inspired him to don. It’s a testament to the unity and passion that the group inspires in him.

There's a time for daring and there's a time for caution, and a wise man understands which is called for. John Keating

Keating’s talk with Charlie and the other boys after the telephone stunt in the sanctuary demonstrates where he draws the line between teacher and preacher. While he establishes himself as an unorthodox faculty member, he is still an authority figure in the boys' lives and wants them to see their education through to graduation, not get expelled following his teachings. Emphasizing this shows that he considers himself their teacher first, before anything else.

John Keating: I always thought the idea of education was to learn to think for yourself. Mr. Nolan: At these boys' age? Not on your life! John Keating and Headmaster Nolan

This exchange between Nolan and Keating is one of several instances where Keating’s unusual methods begin to get him in hot water. Nolan personifies everything Welton stands for: tradition, discipline, and rules that stand the test of time. Keating, on the other hand, while respecting these beliefs, thinks differently, and it’s this alternative thinking that seems to create such conflict between himself and his peers as well as the boys and the administration.

Dead Poets Society Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Dead Poets Society is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What’s the theme of dead poets society rip it out

Do you mean the scene where Keeting asks his class to rip out the Pritchard text? He wants them to avoid conformity by ripping a text that treats poetry like a math equation.

Explore Keating's influence on his students and how his encouragement of originality and "carpe diem" affect them.

I can't write your essay for you but can make a general comment. One of Keating’s main, overarching lessons for the boys is the idea of “seizing the day”—that is, making the most of the time they have now and taking advantage of the opportunities...

According to Pitts, all of the girls go for “jerks”. Do you agree with his assessment? Why or why not?

Well, this is a pretty subjective answer from personal experience. Many many years ago I was captain of the chess team in high school. Lets just say girls were not clamouring to wear my jacket. The hockey players,they used to throw pucks at our...

Study Guide for Dead Poets Society

Dead Poets Society study guide contains a biography of director Peter Weir, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Dead Poets Society
• Dead Poets Society Summary
• Character List
• Director's Influence

Essays for Dead Poets Society

Dead Poets Society literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of the film Dead Poets Society directed by Peter Weir.

• Authority Against Individualism: Dead Poets Society and The Rabbits
• Dead Poets Society: The Powerful Thought of Individuality
• Identity in Dead Poets Society and Frost's Poetry
• Exploring Transitions: Educating Rita and Dead Poets Society

Wikipedia Entries for Dead Poets Society

• Introduction

Dead Poets Society Analysis Essay

Lost and Found In todays society teenagers are struggling to be themselves, because of the pressure of everyone around them trying to make them someone else. In Dead Poets Society Todd Anderson shows the positive effects of self-esteem, as he develops from a self-conscious young man to growing more confident with the help of Neil Perry and Mr. Keating, and finally to demonstrate great self-esteem in one final act. It is important to know that it’s easy to follow in others’ footsteps, but nobody else’s steps lead exactly where one is going. By trying to copy and replicate someone elses legacy, one won’t get to their full potential when trying to find the purpose of life. It’s essential that one will figure this sooner than later. In the…

Todd finds himself emerging from his self-conscious shell after being faced with the death of his roommate and close friend. Although the lack of positive self-esteem can be symbolized more when Neil dies after he is reminded of living a life that was chosen for him rather than what he would choose for himself. Also from the idea of when not being who one is, is as good as being dead. So it is quite the milestone when Todd begins to find the courage and confidence that was always inside of himself when he rebelliously stands on top of his desk. Thus encouraging nearly all of his classmates to follow as he risks punishment once reciting, “Oh captain, my captain” (Dead Poets Society) just as Mr. Keating was leaving, in the end scene of the movie. He shows that even though we won’t ever really be completely happy, but will be okay in the long run. The importance of individuality is an essential characteristic for people all across the world, as Todd Anderson portrays as the perfect character in Dead Poets Society to teach others how one can’t be anyone but oneself. In the end, he came to terms with this idea and even though he won’t be completely fixed he has finally made it to the right path. And -Which would also compared with the teenagers in today’s society- as long as he stays true to himself any plans he has for his future are…

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Dead Poets Society

53 pages • 1 hour read

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Chapters 6-10

Chapters 11-15

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Discussion Questions

Describe Todd Anderson’s character arc as it relates to the theme of finding your voice . In what ways does Mr. Keating help him? In what ways does Neil?

Compare and contrast the characters of Charlie and Cameron. Be sure to track their growth or regression throughout the novel and focus on their relationship to the rules of Welton.

In Dead Poets Society , Welton is a symbol for the isolation that comes along with striving to maintain certain traditions and standards. Pick one character that experiences isolation in the novel and explain how they escape (or don’t escape) that feeling of loneliness.

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Dead Poets Society

N. h. kleinbaum.

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Todd Anderson Quotes in Dead Poets Society

Sixteen-year-old Todd Anderson, one of the few students not wearing the school blazer, hesitated as the boys around him rose to their feet. His mother nudged him up. His face was drawn and unhappy, his eyes dark with anger. He watched silently as the boys around him shouted in unison, “Tradition! Honor! Discipline! Excellence!”

As the other boys stared at him, Todd fought back tears. “You'll like soccer here, Anderson. All right, boys. Dismissed.”

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Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Dead Poets Society — The Main Messages In The Film Dead Poets Society

The Main Messages in The Film Dead Poets Society

• Categories: Dead Poets Society Film Analysis Movie Review

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Words: 1018 |

Published: Oct 2, 2020

Words: 1018 | Pages: 2 | 6 min read

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