Dead Poets Society At the welcoming ceremony for new students, Mr Nowlan is introduced and explains the principals of the Welton academy ( a school only for boys), which are tradition, excellence, discipline and honour. Mr John Keating who has been a student on the school, is introduced too. He is a English teacher, who has his own conception of teaching. He is inspired by values like passion, imagination, beauty, language and love which he integrates in his classes. His slogan is “Carpe Diem”, which means “seize the day”, therefore he wants his students to think of their own life, choices and become individual persons.
This is exemplified by Charlie Dalton when he refused to do his walk when Keating ordered them to do so and when he changed his name to Nawanda which is a unique name. Keating encourages his students to don’t just consider what the author thinks when they read but consider what they think themselves; quoting Thoreau who said “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation. Don’t be resigned to that. Break out!” Emerson also wrote “To believe in your own thought, to believe what is true for you, in your private heart is true, that is genius!” Another element is the concept of “Carpe Diem” which was demonstrated by Knox who seized the day when he finally acted upon by his desire to call Chris. The third element is spirituality in nature as shown by the recitation of poem and the chanting of the boys in an Indian cave.
Welton Academy is a prestigious and traditional institute with a strict policy based on realist administration. In the beginning of the film, we were presented with the school motto, the “four pillars” of the school – “Tradition, Honour, Discipline and Excellence”, at the first assembly of the term. These words were an exact description of how the college operates. We are later shown scenes in the classrooms which prove that everything revolves around conduct and self-mastery. In Dead Poets Society, Welton Academy strongly follows the empty vessel theory, where the school believed that teenagers cannot think for themselves until knowledge is poured into their brains by society.
English Literature Reaction Paper “Dead Man’s Path” By Chinua Achebe Chinua Achebe’s “Dead Man’s Path”, was a great story about a man who wanted to make a difference in education for children, and this difference that the main character Michael wanted to make ironically brought him to his demise. Michael was a pig-headed self indulgent individual; that never took anybody else’s beliefs or interests into account. In my opinion Michael is an educated man who cares most about his own success. He is also callous and ignorant to the beliefs and traditions to the new community he is in. When Michael tells one of the teachers he saw someone walking through the schools property; the teacher tells him that it’s normal that the people of the village use it as a cut through because it connects the village shrine to the sacred burial place.
My Captain!” In his class, he is making unusual works for his students in teaching them. An example of which is he ask the students stand on his desk in order to look at the world in a different way. In another class Keating has Neil read the introduction to their poetry textbook, prescribing a mathematical formula to rate the quality of poetry which Keating finds ridiculous, and he instructs his students to rip the introduction out of their books. Inspired by Keating, the secretly revive the school literary club named Dead Poets Society. Neil wants to be an actor but even though he knows that his father will disapprove he still continued to the audition that is held on his school for a play.
Dead poets’ Society is a film that is set in the 1950’s at a conservative all boys elite prep school. Mr. Keating is an English teacher at Welton Academy that has very different methods of teaching than the rest of the staff. Welton Academy is based on the idea that education is a strict, well laid out path, which has been tried and true and doesn’t need to change. Also, with the idea of morphing the character traits of the young boys that attend to be just the way tradition says. “Tradition, Honor, Discipline, Excellence,” is the schools motto.
So the cultural background of these boys had trained them to see life in a much different way until they have Mr. Keating for an English teacher and he gives his “Carpe Diem “speech which greatly changes their perceptions of school, the future, and life. One of the characters Neal Perry struggles with his own demons after the free thinking Mr. Keating has inspired him to discover that he does not want to be the doctor that his father has so much pushed him to be but rather an actor. Acting is what he is passionate about. Neal was motivated and controlled all his life by his father’s wishes. It was a learned response that to get his father’s approval, he must go the route of prep school, medical school, and then a career as a doctor.
Hughes uses many rhetorical devices in this poem to elucidate the questioning the speaker is really doing of himself. Starting with asking, “ I wonder if it’s that simple”. (6) the speaker announces this after reading over his assignment for his class but then the assignment is not only what he is questioning. The simplicity could also represent if life is “that simple” or more likely in this case if expressing one’s self is “that simple.” being, as he mentions, “the only colored student in my class” (10) expressing his feelings and experiences in life may be incredibly different compared to the others. It isn’t easy for him to express himself but this kicks off his inner conflict with the sense of staying true to himself by finding a way of accepting that he will never necessarily be exactly like his other classmates due to his skin color or the choice of making it “that simple” and forgetting the struggles that he has faced to get to where he is now and take the easy way out by following society and expressing himself the way everybody else thinks is acceptable.
The movie, Dead Poets Society directed by Peter Weir is set in an American private school during a time of romanticism in the first half of the twentieth century. Dead Poet’s Society negotiates the transition of poetry and life as an unconventional English teacher encourages a group of private school boys to seize the day. The boys intimidate the teachers youth by reforming the dead poet’s society and getting in touch with romanticism and their true inner life. However a fathers controlling nature pushes Neil Perry to his limits as the stress of all work and no play takes its toll. It is this scene where Neil sacrifices himself that has greatest impact and adds overall effectiveness to the movie.
This school hires a new English teacher, Mr. John Keating, a teacher who will make an unforgettable impact on his students. Throughout the movie Mr. Keating challenges his students to “think for themselves, to look deep within themselves, and to make their lives extraordinary” (Keating). While Welton tries to make the boys good citizens through conformity, Mr. Keating attempts to convince the boys to think for themselves and not just follow the crowd. He encourages the boys to discover their dreams then pursue them. Charles Dalton, known by his friends as Charlie, is one of Mr. Keating’s students and is the rebel of the group.