One day, my daughter needed to write an essay, and as usual, students had very little time. So she asked her psychoanalyst mom for help. The task was to write an essay from the perspective of one of the characters in the film "Dead Poets Society." I started watching it "just in case," but ended up binge-watching it in one sitting.
I highly recommend it to teenagers, their parents, and teachers alike. It tackles complex themes such as relationships between classmates, children and parents, and the clash between societal traditions and individuality and creativity. It also delves into the difficult topics of the value of life and suicide. The film not only raises many questions but also offers ways to navigate life’s challenges, leaving each viewer with the right to their own opinion and personal choice.
Essay-review:
"I’m new at school. My name is Todd Anderson.
Our new teacher, John Keating, used his teaching methods to bring out each student’s individuality. He tried to instill a love for poetry—not just reading and understanding it, but feeling it, experiencing it, and letting it resonate through your soul.
All of us who were captivated by him discovered not just talents but also found our own approach to life. We learned about friendship, loyalty, and devotion.
My roommate, Neil Perry, was sensitive and vulnerable, though he tried to hide it. His attempts to forge letters in place of his father’s signature show how much he loved him and feared disappointing him. His father wanted to give him everything he himself had been denied. But Neil’s creative nature was stronger than his fear. His passion for theater wasn’t just a fleeting desire—it was the meaning of his life. And it was thanks to Mr. Keating’s lessons that Neil realized this.
The entire system we grew up in and studied under opposed any form of individuality. Welton Academy’s four pillars—tradition, honor, discipline, and excellence—stood in the way of each of us discovering our uniqueness and inner depth, our potential. How could we be individuals when tradition mattered more than anything? How could we unlock our creativity when discipline and obedience came first? Of course, we were inspired by our teacher’s ideas and happily broke the rules, sneaking out at night for our gatherings.
The school blamed the teacher for what happened, but I believe the real culprit was Neil’s father, who never gave him even the slightest chance to pursue his own desires. And the school itself, where we studied, contributed to the rebellion brewing within us, even if it wasn’t as overt as Mr. Keating’s lessons. The first thing I heard upon arriving at the school was the distorted pillars of Welton: Farce, Odiousness, Decay, Excrement. No wonder the students were already rebelling against the institution’s rules. Mr. Keating simply showed us another way to resist a system that suffocated every student.
Before meeting Keating and Neil, I was shy and withdrawn, afraid to read aloud, and stuttered. Neil was the first to support me and refused to abandon me just because I was afraid to read aloud at the Dead Poets Society meeting. His sensitivity and tact helped me believe in myself and uncover my own abilities.
Thanks to Mr. Keating and his unconventional teaching methods, I spoke for the first time in my life without stuttering, even reading my own poems aloud. Neil, too, thanks to his support, dared to try acting. Of course, I was against his secret involvement—I insisted he talk to his father instead of defying his parental bans. And it pains me deeply that Neil’s parents never heard him while he was alive. Perhaps, for Neil, suicide was the only way out he could see at that moment. His fragile, creative soul struggled to defend its desires and interests.
Despite the fact that our parents forced us to sign a document against Keating and admit his guilt for everything that happened, deep down, we knew he only wanted what was best for us. All we could do was stand on our desks in support of him and show our gratitude.
There were those among us who betrayed both the teacher and our society. Cameron fully embraced the system, enjoying self-affirmation while remaining loyal to tradition and the school. People like him become the "next pillars" blocking others from discovering their individuality.
Perhaps Cameron is right in some ways. We can’t escape the rigid frameworks of the system: the school we attend, the society we live in with our parents, the necessity of getting an education to achieve something in life. That’s why we had to sign that paper, so hated by the "Dead Poets Society." But our final gesture of support for Keating showed that he didn’t waste his emotional energy on us in vain. He awakened our individuality and inner strength, which can never be extinguished. No "pillars" can silence our own voices. What matters is that those of us inspired by the teacher heard him and will continue to follow him. Even if Welton’s "pillars" stand in our way toward self-discovery, the experience of uncovering ourselves will help us in this eternal struggle between duty and feeling, between society’s demands and the soul’s aspirations."
