John Keating, a new English teacher at an all boy preparatory school changes the way traditions are held in the movie “Dead Poets Society.” He introduces a unique way of thinking and even changes the way his students view life itself. Keating gives many motivational talks to his students including the famous “Carpe Diem” speech. In this elevating and passionate speech, Keating emphasizes to his students to think in depth about how each individual is living his or her life to their fullest. By using allusions, rhetorical questions, and other rhetorical devices, he further strengthens his point to “seize the day.”
“O Captain, my Captain,” the phrase from Keating’s speech, alludes to the famous Walt Whitman poem about Abraham Lincoln. “O Captain, my …show more content…
For instance, Keating asks the boys “Why does the writer use these lines…?” and “Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable?” because he wants them to think on their own before he answers the questions himself. He answers his own questions to model how the students should think, and to demonstrate how to come to a conclusion. The first question he asks pertains to his main topic of seizing the day, because in his response to them he emphasizes that life is short and one day we're all going to “stop breathing, turn cold, and die.” After the other rhetorical question “Did they wait until it was too late..” he states that the boys in the photographs are saying “Seize the day boys. Make your lives extraordinary.” The purpose of Keating showing his new students the photographs of these men is to prove that the previous students were in the same position as his new students. The men that have graduated in the photos are “telling” the new kids at Welton Prep to take advantage of time they still have and make their lives
“O Captain, my Captain,” the phrase from Keating’s speech, alludes to the famous Walt Whitman poem about Abraham Lincoln. “O Captain, my …show more content…
For instance, Keating asks the boys “Why does the writer use these lines…?” and “Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable?” because he wants them to think on their own before he answers the questions himself. He answers his own questions to model how the students should think, and to demonstrate how to come to a conclusion. The first question he asks pertains to his main topic of seizing the day, because in his response to them he emphasizes that life is short and one day we're all going to “stop breathing, turn cold, and die.” After the other rhetorical question “Did they wait until it was too late..” he states that the boys in the photographs are saying “Seize the day boys. Make your lives extraordinary.” The purpose of Keating showing his new students the photographs of these men is to prove that the previous students were in the same position as his new students. The men that have graduated in the photos are “telling” the new kids at Welton Prep to take advantage of time they still have and make their lives