essay dead poets society

February 16t


dead poets society symbolism
standing on the desk

Short summary:
A new English teacher, John Keating, is introduced to an all-boys preparatory school that is known
for its ancient traditions and high standards. He uses unorthodox methods to reach out to his
students, who face enormous pressures from their parents and the school. With Keating's help,
students Neil Perry, Todd Anderson and others learn to break out of their shells, pursue their
dreams and seize the day

The movie tells us about Mr. Keating. He dares to overturn the traditionally respected teaching
methodology. He does it by inspiring his students with enthusiasm, passion and creativeness. Mr.
Keating encourages them to be real individuals. Why did Mr. Keating let the students stand on their
desks

Mr. Keating not only teaches his students English, but he teachers them much more. On the rst
day of class, he has a student read a few lines from “The Virgins to make Much of Time” with the
line “gather ye rosebuds while ye may”.
Mr. Keating tells them about carpe diem, seize the day, because no one lives forever. He
encourages the boys to make their lives extraordinary. Although the boys think that the lesson is
really weird, Mr. Keating is teaching them something that is very important, especially to the boys
going to an elite preparatory school and living to ful ll their parents wishes instead of their own

Mr. Keating doesn’t stop there. After having a student read the rst paragraph of the introduction of
their poetry textbook, he declares it to be excrement, and orders the boys to rip out the entire
introduction. Although the boys are hesitant at rst, they do as they are told. Mr. Keating doesn’t
want the boys to be rating poetry as this introduction tells them to. He wants them to create their
own thoughts on what they read. He wants the boys to decide how the poetry makes them feel,
rather than focusing on rating it on this scale. He tells the boys “No matter what anybody tells you,
words and ideas can change the world.
Mr. Keating stands on his desk, telling the boys, “I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we
should constantly look at things in a different way.” He goes on to say, “Boys you must strive to nd
your own voice, because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to nd it at all.” All of
their other teachers emphasize that they need to learn the material, do their work, and go on to do,
not what they want to do, but what their parents want them to do or what the administrators of the
school want them to do. Now, this teacher is telling them to do what they want to do, because they
have their own voice, their own thoughts, their own desires and their own dreams. They are their
own person and they should nd their own voice

Mr. Keating receives backlash from the administration. They warn him not to teach these young,
impressionable boys to be free thinkers. They say that the boys will never be happy if they have
dreams that they then nd are unattainable. Mr. Keating doesn’t change

The idea of standing on top of their desks is another recurring motif in the movie and holds great
meaning. It originally serves to represent open-mindedness; it encourages thinking from different
perspectives and thoughtfulness from outside the box. And Keating’s teaching methods were
cynical. He teaches them to look at things from different points of view by literally making them look
from a different point of view

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