Many teens often succumb to the stresses of the outside world. As people like peers, teachers, and parents constantly put heavy weights on the teen’s shoulders, the movie Dead Poets’ Society is a movie exactly about this. It shows a group of teenagers coming together to form a club sharing the same name of the movie, along the way each discovering more about themselves, all with the help of their open minded teacher and something inside of them that was there all along, free spirit. Transcendentalism is the act of not conforming to social standards, and all together straying different from those around. Each character throughout the movie shows many traits of transcendentalism with three being the most dominant, Neil …show more content…
He is a prominent member in the Dead Poets’ Society. Some may even consider him the leader. While he is always helping others with their problems, he often hides his own. An example of him putting his problems second is his want to be in the play, strictly against his father's wishes. He does it anyway with a lot of backlash from his family. This act of going against his parents can be classified as transcendentalism, specifically non conformity. Many members of Welton academy are there for educational reasons only and pursuing a field in the arts is unknown, to some even taboo. This is also the case in Neil’s family: his father tells him that being in the play could distract him from real career. This is why Neil’s actions can be classified as non conformity, as he went against everyone else's views on what the right careers to pursue are. Neil is a transcendentalist defying his father’s wishes to chase his dreams chase his …show more content…
Keating often takes his classes outside, showing that he is a transcendentalist for his love of nature. Many times throughout the movie he uses the the outside to convey a point, or take the kids on an interesting lesson they won't forget. An example of this is when each kid was given a piece of poetry to read, after which they would kick a soccer ball with all the force of the poem they just read. This unfortunately leads to his termination from Welton academy all together, along with some other unfortunate events. Along with love for nature, Mr. Keating demonstrates close to all of the traits a transcendentalist shows. This unfortunately is looked down upon in Welton which is another reason he got fired. Mr. Keating stood firm in his beliefs which eventually lead to the loss of his