Dead Poets Society: Tradition, Honor, Discipline, and Excellence

As the movie starts, we are brought to Welton Academy for boys at the start of a new semester. As we meet Todd, Neil, Knox, Charlie and others; we hear Headmaster Nolan's orientation speech where he makes students recite the four pillars by which the Academy teaches. Tradition, Honor, Discipline and Excellence. The way these are said by the students they sound like rules that they must follow, rather than a guide by which they must live all aspects of their lives. We meet Todd Anderson a shy boy with big shoes to fill. He is lonely and pressured by his strict parents and even society to attend Yale and become a lawyer just like his older brother, even though this is clearly not his dream. Todd's roommate, Neil Perry, also struggles with having a strict father that expects huge things from him. Neil's dad is a grumpy man that doesn't really care about his son's feelings. He just orders him around and expects his son to agree and follow his rules. He does this thinking he is assuring his son a great future with opportunities that he didn't have. 

The first day of school greats the boys with multiple orthodox teaching methods employed by their math, latin, chemistry, trigonometry teachers. These methods consisted of excessive homework assignments, boring speeches and intimidation. When they finally go to Mr. Keating's English class they are expecting a little more of what they have seen all day, but they are greeted with the surprise that their teacher is a liberal man that loves to teach outside the classroom. Mr. Keating tries to empower his students by telling them they are powerful individuals and showing them that they can think for themselves, something no one has ever done at the academy. Here is where Todd an Neil's internal and external journeys collide. Both of them struggle with strict parents that already have their futures planned out, but now they are shown that there's hope in following their dreams as Mr. Keating teaches them the meaning of Carpe Diem. At first most students including Todd and Neil refer to the class as weird. 

As the days progress Mr. Keating teaches the boys various lessons about thinking outside the box, non-conformity and expression. He first make his students remove the introduction pages of the textbook that talked about the guidelines to reading poetry, as he states "that its not the bible and they're not going to hell for that and they must learn to think for themselves." He also teaches his students about perspective as he makes them stand on his desk and look at the classroom from a different point of view. 

Without knowing it Mr. Keating is giving Todd and Neil tools to confront their biggest fears: standing up to their parents and superiors about their beliefs and ideas. I believe this was the biggest lesson these boys learned through their "superior" education at the academy. 

The boys encounter an old year book where they find Mr. Keating, since he was a student at the academy, and they wonder what the Dead Poets Society was. He tells them that it was a secret society were the meaning to life was discussed through poetry. Neil decides to re-created the Dead Poets Society and all of the boys agree on meeting during the night. Todd agrees to join if he doesn't have to read aloud any poetry, since he is so shy. Neil seems to be this strong teenager that leads the group and has control of everything, except that when his dad is around he seems to lose all these qualities. This constant fear of disappointing and not being able to stand up to his father is his internal journey, he battles with this everyday. As it also affects his external journey since he is not allowed to do anything he likes. Neil loves to act and have many extracurricular activities, things his father completely disapproves of. 

Neil decides to follow what his teacher has taught and he seizes the day by joining a play. The day before the play is going to be presented, Neil's father comes to the school and scolds his son for making this stupid decision. He orders him to quit this stupidity. Mr. Keating suggests to Neil that he should tell his father the truth about his feelings. Neil has a new obstacle: to face his biggest fear by talking to his dad about the way he feels. Even though he decides to take Mr. Keating's advice, his dad still says no, but Neil lies to everyone and says his father has agreed to let him participate. He is heartbroken and his internal journey becomes more complicated with each step. He defies his father for the first time and does an excellent job at the play, he feels free and happy after a standing ovation. 

After the end of the play his dad takes him home, where he keeps yelling at his son. Mr. Perry informs his son that do to his actions he has decided to put him in a military academy in order to get a better preparation for Harvard and medical school. Neil couldn't take his fathers abusive behaviour any longer, he had done everything possible to show him how he felt and what he really wanted, but he wouldn't listen. Neil's decides to end his journey by committing suicide with his father's gun. Neil was unable to cope with his father's views and made a decision that not only affect him, but everyone around him. Mr. Keating was fired after his teaching methods were declared unethical and most of the boys were punished for joining the Dead Poets Society. 

Before leaving the school Mr. Keating goes to his classroom to pick up some papers and at this moment Todd finally lets go of his shyness and stands up honouring his teacher and confesses that he was forced to sign the paper that caused him to lose his job. May other students join Todd in this little protest. In the end, Neil's decision caused Todd to face his fear and overcome everything that was complicating his internal journey. We must never forget that our decisions affect the people around us. Just like Mr. Perry cause Neil to feel depressed and how Neil's suicide caused Todd to get over his fear.