Poetry becomes an open highway, an outlet available for expression. It allows the realization of the ability to verbalize what we think, what we know, what we feel, and what we long for opening our eyes to see who we are and not just who we should be or who we are told to be. In this movie you are introduced to a group of boys whose priorities basically just circles around studying. Tradition, Honor, Discipline and Excellence, is the ground pillars of the private school Welton Academy, were the boys go to school. Only the finest and cleverest boys are qualified to attend this school.
One day a new teacher is hired. He brings new methods into his classes. The boys are now getting a whole new life perspective, and they get a lot more confident in themselves. They are inspired by Mr. Keating and he teaches these teenage-boys, that there is more between heaven and earth than studying and becoming rich. For one boy, the meeting with Keating means that he starts acting, but when his father finds out, his dream falls into pieces. The new teacher Mr. Keating sets whole new standards in his classes. He teaches the boys how to express their deepest thoughts and feelings trough poetry.
Neil is one of first boys to pick up on Keating’s untraditionally methods. Neil is finally has some dreams and wishes of his own, and it’s not only his father’s high expectations that counts for him anymore. Mr. Keating’s new way of thinking makes these boys able to dream bigger and broader than just about education and money. Neil, Todd, Charlie, Cameron and Knox are some of the boys. In the movie, Mr. Keating encouraged students to see things in a different perspective, as the poets viewed life from their own so he wanted them to dare to have their own perception of life.
The boys were taught to think freely for themselves. To live life seeing what is pure, good and true, knowing that it is cut there yet within their grasp, if only they would “seize the day “. It is so enlightening, so beautiful a concept once applied to real life. Watching from these dead poets, learning from their works, their feelings and ideas and ideals to live on. Being in a world filled with the harsh realities of trials and pain, I realize that we are still free, free to feel, to think, to be unique and to be ourselves.
I admire how this idealism presented is brought into the light of reality, “as there is time for daring so is there time for caution. ” This ought to make us grateful for life despite the suffering, as we look forward to the silver lining behind every dark cloud, giving us strength for today, hope for tomorrow, endurance for the pain, courage for the hardships and fulfillment in the end. As I watched this movie it made me wonder how this teacher touched the lives of boys with the use of poetry.
It always moved me the way these students stood up for this man and how he, in turn, made such an impact in their lives. But only now, did I actually listen and focus on what he was teaching. We ought to value this freedom, because taking Neil as an example; he was without freedom of expression, his pain and drudgery all locked up inside led him to decide to end his life prematurely. I think he would have died anyway, in the absence of self-expression, being unable to hope or to live his life the way he wanted to. He failed. How important it is to see, to stand, just as the others realized in the end.
The Dead Poets Society is a very inspirational movie it really shows how those boys’ lives were changed from the arrogant, rich, petty lives they had in the beginning, to the wise and inspired attitudes they had in the end. Robin Williams, or whatever his character’s name was, really showed the boys the true way of how to interpret poetry and he taught them in a way that inspired them and encouraged them to do better. When Neal died and the boys were being questioned about the dead poet’s society I think the boys really started to realize what knowledge they have and what they had to do.
