Dead Poets Society Film

The film Dead Poets Society is based on the life of students, specifically six students, each with very different and unique personalities and a teacher, Mr. Keating, whom with his distinct way of thinking inspires freedom and individuality. This film presents a variety of themes that overcome a person at their young adult stage of life. These include: confusion, decisions, love, independence, and in some cases depression. This entry will focus on two of the characters' journeys, internal and external, throughout the film.

Neil Perry, a student of the Walton preparatory, is very dedicated to studies and has A in all classes being the school one of the most challenging. There’s a conflict though, which is that his father is very strict; for he, wants the best for his son but forcing him to have a career as a doctor. As the semester commences and they take class with Mr. Keating, he discovers a passion that was already hidden within him, which is that of acting. By this, he lets the audience know his internal journey of finding out what he wants in life and who he is or wants to become. As a result of this realization, he audiences for a Shakespeare play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; which his father is totally in rejection of. We can also appreciate his external journey by the way he interacts with his classmates. Neil is the one who reinitiates the Dead Poets Society, showing himself as a leader. He, also with his occurrences and acting, makes his friends laugh, in order to put their mood up. Unfortunately his internal journey has a dreadful end and that is when one night, after talking with his parents about his passion for acting, and seeing that they won’t accept it, he commits suicide.

Another character that caught my attention throughout the movie was Todd Anderson, the "new boy" in school. At the beginning he was insecure, and a righteous boy, strict with himself, which is good because it made him a good student but when it came to showing who he really was and all his talents within him, he failed to do so. In one scene he was writing a poem, as an assignment from Mr. Keating’s class, and as Neil took it from his hand and began reciting it out loud, jokingly, it actually sounded really good. But the next day when he had to recite it in front of the class, he said he didn’t have it done. Mr. Keating forced him, in a funny manner, to recite something random out of his mind, and this resulted in a perfectly, well recited poem. This scene shows a part of his journey in which he discovers his natural ability to create poetry. As part of his external and internal journey, Todd commences to stand up for what he thinks it’s right not for what others think it is. For example, in one class that Mr. Keating orders everyone to walk, he doesn’t, and he says he has the right not to walk, acing the activity by showing individuality.