Analysis+of+The+Dead+Poets+Society

The movie //The Dead Poets Sociey// is a perfect example of transcendentalist ideas being repressented in a modern media. //The Dead Poets Society// was made in 1989, directed by Tom Schulman and starring Robin Williams, Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard. The plot centers around a group of teenage boys at a rigorous private school and their teacher, John Keating, who shows them how to live life to the fullest through poetry. This film carries many of the important messages of the transcendentalist movement inlcuding nonconformity, individuality and making one's own decisions. At the beggining of the story the main characters are bullied by the people around them to follow the path that has been set out for them and are afraid to do anything that is non-traditional or unorthodox. However, when Keating becomes their teacher he opens their eyes to the joys of waking your own path. Near the end of the movie Keating is being reprimanded for influencing the boys so that they had become rowdy and rebellious and he says, "I always thought the idea of education was to learn to think for yourself.". This quote illustrates precisely the transcendentalist ideal of individuality. By saying that he belives the goal of education to be able to think for yourself Keating shows that he places a greater importance on the idea of self-reliance rather than general knowlege. This falls right in line with the notable transcendentalist essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson who actualy wrote and essay titled "Self-Reliance". This movie was made partly as a critique of our society's education system. It shows how the system supresses the talents and spirits of individuals and instead redirects their energy into practical feilds that are stifeling and unenjoyable.

Some movies have strong messages that have resounding effects of people and their perceptions of the world throughout society. Ocassionaly a film will be produced that carries a strong message towards all people of a certain society, but more often a movie will make a smaller, though no less powerful, impact on a subgroup within a population. In the parameters of the group affected by //The Dead Poet's Society// the effects can be assumed to be much greater. The eintire movie is based on the the theme of being yourself and following your dreams,l and this probably had a great relevance to young people when the film first came out. As John Keating says to the school director, "But only in their dreams can men truly be free. 'Twas always thus and always thus will be.". Quotes such as this can be very inspirational and meaningfull to audiences who can identify with the characters. By showing the importance of achieving personal happiness and not stifeling it in others this movie sent a sense of hope to many people. The movie heps people with the same issues as the charaters put their lives into perspective and perhaps figure out what is really important, at least from a transcendetalist point of view.