Essay on Dead Poets Society Notes

Todd was also the last of the five to sign the confession suggesting Mr. Keating in Neil Perry’s

The film is set in the year 1959 in a Vermont boarding school named Welton Academy. This academy is a very strict all boys school that demands the most out of every student so that they are completely ready for university. The term that this takes place in welcomes a new English teacher, Mr. John Keating who attended Welton himself, and follows the transfer student Todd Anderson whose brother was one of Welton’s finest students. Todd’s roommate is Neil Perry, who comes from a middle-class family that made multiple sacrifices to put him into Welton. Neil’s father is extremely strict with his son and dictates his schooling and extracurricular activities. Friends of Neil, and later Todd, include Charlie Dalton the rambunctious one, Knox Overstreet the romantic, the very smart ones Steven Meeks and Richard Cameron, and Gerald Pitts. The movie follows the seven friends through the school term starting with how strict and very stressful the courses and teachers are then showing the drastic difference of Mr. Keating. The movie remains on the lives of the boys, mainly focusing on Keating’s class and how he wishes for his students to become free thinkers which leads to many different issues with the friends.

The main problem that Todd faces is the struggle to maintain a sense of self-confidence as a result of living under his older brother’s shadow of success. Instead of becoming a lawyer like what his father expects, he has a passion for writing which contradicts with his father’s anticipation. However, unlike Neil, he keeps these thoughts and ideas to himself and dares not to speak them out loud to his parents. He remains obedient whether or not his opinions match theirs. There were various obstacles that prevented him from delivering his thoughts and he was often labeled as shy or timid. He was unable to present the well-prepared poem he wrote in front of the entire class due to these traits and the lack of self-confidence but Mr. Keating recognizes his strengths as well as his potential to do something marvelous. By using unusual techniques, Mr. Keating was able to bring out his potential and he receives one of the first applauses which was the beginning of his emerging confidence. It was evident that he debates against himself and requires a lot more courage to get up in front of everyone simply because he did not see the value in both himself and the work. The overall conflict is man vs. self and man vs. man. Most of the time he was bothered by himself for being pessimism and the fact that others have huge expectations on him due to his brother’s outstanding achievements.

In the movie, Mr. Keating can be seen as the perfect persuader. There are four elements to having a good persuasive speech--the speech itself, the audience, the resources, and you-- and Mr. Keating utilizes all four of these tools to persuade the boys. His resources are mainly a variety of poets, such as Whitman, Thoreau, and Tennyson, to back up his own thinking. His audience is probably classified as the easiest to persuade because they are all young and impressionable adolescents seeking guidance at this stage in their lives. They don't know their paths in lives; all that they know up to this point comes from listening to their parents and teachers. The boys had been able to experience seventeen years of life on earth but that is still too early for them to make any value judgments on how the world works or how they can contribute to

When he gets to the school he goes to the gym to see all of the students at the school this year, and when he walks in he sees Chris immediately. Later that day Coach Fulton goes to the lady in charge of all of the student records, and finds out that Chris came from a high school in Indianapolis, but he is disappointed when he finds out that Chris didn’t put basketball as an extracurricular activity. So after about a week Coach Fulton decides to call Chris’s old coach in Indianapolis to see why Chris doesn’t play basketball. When he calls him he learns about Chris’s accident, and finds out that that is the reason that Chris doesn’t play basketball anymore. Chris’s accident was just that an accident where the player that got hurt was out of position, and when Chris was going for a rebound Chris hit him with his elbow in the eye socket. This left the player temporarily blind in that eye, but after surgery he was able to regain his eyesight. After the accident Chris made a promise that he wouldn’t play basketball again, and his parents decided to move him to a new

The two rivers mentioned in ASP are symbolic of the experiences of the students at Devon. The Naguamsett is described as dirty, murky and forbidding, much like the war raging on in the world outside Devon. The strong currents and unpredictability of the river mirrors the war and its chaos. The Devon, on the other hand, is a river that the students are fond of. Fresh water, it is clear and uncomplicated, and is the scene of the golden summer days the boys spent in and around it. The fact that the Devon emptied into the Naguamsett is symbolic of the inevitable transition from the simplicity of childhood innocence to the complications and confusion of maturity. The cave in “DPS” represents freedom. Freedom from convention, freedom from the constrained ideology of the school, and the freedom to express themselves. In the cave the boys read prohibited poetry, drink, smoke cigarettes and discuss women, all things they cannot do within the rigid confines of Welton Academy behavior. As in the lore of old, this cave does indeed contain a treasure, the Dead Poets’ Society’s unrepressed intellectual exchange, combining both their coarser thoughts and their most elevated ambitions. The cave is not so much a barrier against the outside world, rather a cocoon for the ideas of the world within, where they are free and

Keating forces him to create a poem on the spot in front of the class, although he is well-aware of Todd’s resistance to speak in front of others, after he write a poem on his own as requested. Mr. Keating questions Todd and installs him with a sense of confidence in his own abilities, “Mr. Anderson thinks that everything inside of him is worthless and embarrassing. Isn't that right, Todd? Isn't that your worst fear? Well, I think you're wrong. I think you have something inside of you that is worth a great deal”. Mr. Keating teaches Todd to think freely for himself and that these thoughts and opinions he has are valued. In the end, Todd becomes self-reliant, confident in himself and his ideas and beliefs. He does not conform to society and distinguishes himself amongst the rest, maintaining his own voice, and he overcomes his previous shy and isolated self, becoming a leader, when introduced to these ideas of individualism and

Todd Anderson, the shy new kid to the school, is a prime example of how Emerson’s view that someone can be great without fitting in with society by showing that he is a great poet, standing on the desk in defiance to Mr. Nolan, and beginning to live his own life and not being intimidated by the pressures of filling his brother’s shoes. In the beginning of the movie, Todd is shy and does not like speaking in front of a crowd. The rest of the group, however, does not mind sharing their opinions and views with the rest of the class. Todd is misunderstood in this way. Once Mr. Keating, the boys’ teacher who believes in thinking for oneself, makes him go in front of the class and create a poem on the spot, he ends up being a great poet. He is a quick thinker and quickly creates a poem that Mr. Keating loves. Another way that Todd Anderson reflects Emerson’s views is when he defies Mr. Nolan and stands on the desk as a way to remonstrate Mr. Nolan’s views on education. This act shows that he is misunderstood by the school officials because of Mr. Nolan’s reaction to it. Mr. Nolan does not approve of Todd’s defiance of his power and gets mad. Todd continues to stand on the desk to stand up for what he believes in. Following his example, one by one the other boys avidly

Neil Perry is also a troubled young man within himself because he doesn’t want to conform to the life his father wants for him. Neil wants to be his own person and to the things he likes to do but he is afraid to stand up to his father. His father is a phony conformist such as Holden describes his father in Catcher in the Rye. Neil’s father makes him quit the school paper because one of his teachers wants him to, when Neil tries to stand up for himself, his father scolds him and tells him when he graduates medical school he can do what he wants, until then, he must obey what his father tells him. When he does finally do what he wants, when he finally incorporates the ‘’carpe diem’’ phrase into his life and made the decision for himself to act in the play, his father decides to take him out of Welton and send him to military school. Neil felt the only to break his father’s shackles was to kill himself. I think that Neil felt that he couldn’t bare

Deadville, by Robert F, Jones, is a western novel full of riveting action, gore, and vengeance that takes place in the late 1800s. The story is based all across America with two brothers, Dillon and Owen, that are determined to strike it rich.The story starts off with Dillon mentioning that he is elderly and about to become 85 years old. He says that many things have changed within his lifetime, and then begins talking about his wild adventures.The brothers first started off working in coal mines and decided they wanted to become mountain men and hunt animals for their pelts. They soon get captured by a group of Indians. The Indians killed two of their partners and were about to kill them also, but another group of Indians, called the Crows, showed up and rescued them.

Scott overhears Kelly, Julia’s best friend, asking Julia is she finished her book review. The only people that do book reviews is the club that writes the school newspapers. Therefore, Scott decides to join the school newspaper club, so he can try to get closer to Julia, only to learn that Julia was a guest and never actually joined the club. Scott also finds out that Kelly and Julia are planning to join the drama club. By giving Scott another chance to get closer to Julia, he decides to join the drama club. After a horrible performance, Scott joins the stage crew, later to find out that Julia did not even make the cut. After failing twice trying to get closer to Julia, Scott finds out that Julia is running for student council. So again, Scott decided to run too. As usual, Julia does not make student council and Scott does. With piles of homework, a new baby brother on the way, and tons of activities to do Scott is barely getting enough sleep. After learning how hard starting high school was for him, Scott decides to start a survival guide for his upcoming younger brother. Later in the year, a new girl, named Lee, comes to J.P. Zenger High

Neil is presented as an aspiring young boy with the goal of becoming a doctor, or so it would seem. Later we find out that Neil’s true dream is to become an actor. It is Neil’s father who wants him to become a doctor. A great portion of the movie is taken up by this conflict of ideas. Tom Perry represents the conformity in Neil’s life and acting and the Dead Poets Society represent his outreach to individuality. Neil struggles direly to fulfil his own needs but in the end he is smothered by his fathers closed minded insistence that he drops his own interests in the name of sensibility. This represents that in the case of Neil conformity was far more powerful than individuality, as he is driven to death by the

At school, Charlie finds a friend and mentor in his English teacher, Bill. He also overcomes his chronic shyness and approaches a classmate, Patrick, and his stepsister Sam, become two of Charlie's BFFs. Charlie’s new found friends – Sam, Patrick, Mary Elizabeth and Bob - aren't exactly popular and are outcasts themselves. They are all seniors and often hang out at the Big Boy except Bob who doesn't go to school.

Tradition, Honor, Discipline, and Excellence. Those are the four pillars in the film The Dead Poets Society, which takes place at Welton Academy, a prep school located in Vermont, 1959. The Headmaster of the school is Mr. Nolan, who is very strict and traditional leader. The film focuses around a group of boys that attend Welton, who later reinstate the Dead Poets Society (DPS). The boys are Neil Perry, Todd Anderson, Charlie Dalton, Richard Cameron, Pitts, Meeks, and Knox Overstreet. Two of the lead boys are Neil Perry and Todd Anderson. Another main character is Mr. Keating, who is the new poetry teacher at Welton Academy. He encourages his students to become their own individuals and seize the day. Mr. Keating is an alumni of Welton. When the boys find his old yearbook, they discover that he was in the Dead Poets Society, which leads them to confront him on what it is. Mr. Keating reveals that it was made by people dedicated to sucking the marrow out of life, that they would read poetry together and let it drip from their tongues like honey. The boys decide to start their own DPS. Neil is a very outspoken and charismatic boy, who is the leader of the DPS. Todd, Neil’s roommate, is very quiet and shy. Each boy struggles with individuality. Both of them are very dynamic, changing drastically throughout the film. The Dead Poets Society focuses on the social issue of personal voice and independance and how gaining it or losing is can change a person.

Todd, a new student at Welton Academy is painfully shy and anxious to speak up. Being constantly told he needs to live up to his older brother’s reputation leaves him constantly tormented. The amount of pressure that Todd’s parents have on him lead to intense shyness, to the point he can scarcely converse with others. “Mr Anderson thinks everything inside of him is worthless and embarrassing.” Mr Keating looks down on Todd as a result of a high angle shot, making Todd look idle and powerless, telling