Dead Poets Society

IAG
English
VB/2013

Dead Poets Society

Guatemala, 19th of February 2013
Index

1. Plot synopsis
2. Discussion of three important scenes
3. Discussion of 5 important quotes
4. Appendix
5. Review
6. Bibliography

1. Plot synopsis

Todd Anderson is sent to the Welton Academy for boys. This school is known for its excellence and discipline. Todd is obligatedto live under the shadow of his outstanding brother, which graduated from the Welton Academy. However he is able to make some friends. His best friend was Neil Perry. His new group of friends and him will form eventually the Dead Poets Society. They started this society as one of their activities after Mr. Keating came to the school. Mr. Keating changed the life of this group of boys. He was theirEnglish teacher, but was different from the other teachers, because he was enthusiastic and encouraged his class to follow their dreams. Neil, Todd and his group of friends restart the Dead Poets Society, which, was a secret club where they read poetry and talk about the meaning of life. These boys were changing the paths that their parents planned for them and they started to follow theirdreams. One of them, Neil, was passionate for acting but his father didn’t let him. The pressure of his father became so demanding that Neil ended up committing suicide. Everybody was devastated and Neil’s father blamed Mr. Keating, so he was fired. However the book ends with a demonstration of respect and thankfulness to Mr. Keating because he did not only teach them English, but also he taught them toseize the day and follow their dreams.

2. Scenes
3.1. Scene 1
At the beginning of the book Todd meets Neil Perry. Neil is his roommate and they are chatting and getting to know each other. In the room are also Neil’s friends, who are Knox, Charlie, Pitts, Cameron and Meeks. When suddenly Neil’s father enters the room and demands to talk to Neil alone. He was mad at Neil becausehe saw that Neil took an extracurricular activity that he didn’t like. So he forces Neil to leave this club for the school paper so he can concentrate more in his grades and later on, become a doctor.
In this scene, we can see from the beginning of the book the pressure that Neil suffers from his father. WE can also mention that the personality of Neil’s father was not an easy going personalityand that he was the main factor that provoked Neil to commit suicide. Because Neil really wanted to act and after his father prohibited him to act and forced him to become a doctor. Neil couldn’t handle that pressure anymore and he was never able to communicate with his father because he had no voice or opinion in their conversations. Neil’s father never even listened Neil’s opinion, so Neil’sdesperate solution was to kill himself.

3.2. Scene 2
One of the scenes that caught my eye is when Mr. Keating is giving his class and he makes the boys stand in their table. Mr. Keating does that to make his students see things from a different perspective. We can notice that he is trying to teach them to see the world from another perspective. I think he is trying to do that because heknows how the school methods are, because Mr. Keating studied years ago at the Welton Academy. These methods close the student’s minds. Because the impression that the Welton Academy methods give is that they are trying to create a perfect successful hardworking man. In my opinion they are trying to create something that doesn’t exists; perfection. And because of the school methods the students holdback their creativity, imagination and strengths. So the students feel relieved in Mr. Keating class, because he has liberal methods. He shows the students to think for their selves and stand for what they believe in. In my opinion you cannot be successful if you’re not yourself, because at one point you get tired of trying to live for the expectations of others, just like it happened to Neil...