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| Before I begin, I would like to dedicate this post to Robin Williams. He is one of my all-time favourite actors, and a source of inspiration for many. His saying "No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world", is one that helps me to stay positive to this day. Robin, you were taken from us too soon. Thank you for your contributions. Rest In Peace, Oh Captain My Captain. |
"Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary."
- Captain John Keating
Robin Williams is one of my all-time favourite actors. Some of his movies like Good Morning Vietnam and Mrs. Doubtfire are some of my favourite movies to this day, but no movie resonates in me as much as Dead Poets Society. This movie carries a beautiful message of essentially not being constrained by expectations of society and being yourself, which is something that I think is so crucial in society where there still is a big call by the conservative population to make everyone sort of conform to the "ideal societal values". Watching Robin in this film is also what gave me the inspiration to become a teacher because I wanted to be someone who could change the world even a little bit, one student at a time.
This film is just filled with so many great quotes that could be applied to real life very easily. "Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, 'Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.' Don't be resigned to that. Break out!" Even in today's much more liberal society, there is still a heavy pressure on young people to get those traditional, high-paying jobs like doctors, lawyers, etc. and the value is most definitely on money, and not what you enjoy. Of course, I'm not saying that it's not important to have a good job with a good pay: it is important for survival; but what's the point of having a good job if you're absolutely miserable at it? Mr. John Keating (Robin's character in the film) really strikes that message in; he says "And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for." Yes, the academic jobs are crucial for life, but without the arts, there's no beauty in life; we have to "live deep and suck out all the marrow of life." (Henry David Thoreau).
How do we "live deep and suck out all the marrow of life", then? The answer is simple: "Carpe diem, seize the day. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may." You just have to seize the day. This is seen pretty evidently in the books; all of the kids are so restricted by their parents' wishes and desires for them (lawyers, doctors, bankers, etc.) that they can't even begin to unearth the surface of their true, imaginative selves; remember, "No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world". This desire for conformity and "Tradition" (the motto of Welton Academy) is seen best in a brief interchange between Mr. Keating and school Headmaster Nolan; Keating says, in a conversation about his creative teaching methods: "I always thought the idea of education was to learn to think for yourself." Nolan responds harshly with, "At these boys' age? Not on your life!" This brief exchange shows that the adults in the society wants to force the kids to conform, so that they'll follow the old-fashioned values of their parents and to suppress free-think. While this idea definitely is dangerous (forcing something on people at the a young age is never good), Mr. Keating does seem to admit to the pros of "conformity" to a degree.
Although he urges the boys to "seize the day" and be daring, he also understands that being too much daring isn't always good; he says: "There's a time for daring and there's a time for caution, and a wise man understands which is called for." and "Sucking the marrow out of life doesn't mean choking on the bone." And this, along with the message of "Carpe Diem" leads to a VERY importance message/theme in life: MODERATION. Yes, it is importance to express yourself and be daring and brave, but you must do all of them in moderation. You can't just live by your passions all the time; you have to be smart and make logical decisions. It's fine to do what you love doing, but you also have to plan ahead; look to the future and make the best choice. You can do what you enjoy as a career, BUT it also should be something that will give you a good quality of life; that's what Keating emphasized to the members of the Dead Poet's Society: they can go ahead and meet up and read poetry and be creative, but they shouldn't risk their life with expulsion by being stupid. Being bold can be being stupid.
So, is it important to Seize the Day and be brave and daring and express yourself? Of course. But is it important to keep things in moderation? Of course. The real takeaway message here is though, don't let ANYONE define you and who you're meant to be. Neil was the victim of this. He let his father have too much control over his life; he let his father define who he was until too late. And to him, suicide may have been the only argument he had left against his unwilling-to-listen father; and while we are meant to resent Neil's father for driving him to suicide, we can also empathize with Neil's father: All Mr. Perry wanted was for his son to have a good, successful, comfortable life; it's been mentioned multiple times that his family wasn't particularly rich so Mr. Perry had to work hard to get Neil into Welton and on a path to a difficult, but ultimately satisfying (at least in Mr. Perry's eyes) life. We can see where Mr. Perry comes from, so it's hard to hate him completely, and he does seem to care deeply about his son, which is most likely why he lays all the blame on Keating rather than himself because he can't come to terms with the fact that he caused his son's death.
So like I said, don't let ANYONE define you and who you're meant to be. Carpe Diem, "Seize the Day", "suck out all the marrow of life". But don't be foolish about it either: don't "choke on the bone"; be in moderation. Balance your deepest dreams and desire with practicality. I think that Neil and all of the other boys would have been fine if they were allowed to express themselves WHILE they continued their studies; if Neil could have continued acting as a hobby, than he wouldn't have killed himself. The film was a war between the freethinking, radical thinkers of the Dead Poets Society and the hard-nosed, traditionalist teachers and adults. Mr. Keating is the moderator in all of this: he is a freethinker yet a respected teacher; a man who encourages his students to follow their passions, but not to let that take over. I think that everybody needs to be like John Keating: everyone needs to find a middle ground between radicalism and traditionalism; to be perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
DPS Rating: 5/5
So I know this wasn't much of a review as me rambling on about life and kind of getting cynical, but it's a new approach I'm trying, so please let me know what you think about it below! As always, thank you for reading my blog, and I always will enjoy hearing from all of you, so if you have any comments, feedbacks, opinions, suggestions, etc., please feel free to comment, and I WILL respond to ALL comments!
