The Dead Poet Essay

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The Dead Poet The movie Dead Poet’s Society is similar to the ideas of the Transcendentalists. Both the movie and the Transcendentalists share beliefs that God is powerful, value nature, and rely on your intuition. Dead Poet’s Society shared ideas similar to the Transcendentalists such as an idealistic view of life. “A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he had said or done otherwise shall give him no peace.”(Self-Reliance, Emerson). Mr. Keating tried to explain to the students to figure out what they truly want, what they truly want to do and in the end they’ll have more success. When Mr. Keating brought up Emerson in class it really made the students wonder if they were the reason they were at Whelton Academy. This inspired one student specifically; Neil went and tried out for a play at a nearby public school reaching out for his dreams. The students didn’t understand that they didn’t need to do what everyone else was doing or already has; Mr. Keating wanted them to break out of the cycle and do whatever they pleased over what the crowd was doing. Mr. Keating forced change on the students right away, to take the option to call him ‘my captain oh captain’ instead of the normal average last name. Neil stood up again and listened to the words of Mr. Keating, and went against the school rules and brought back the dead poet’s society with other boys from Whelton Academy.
“What I must do is all that concerns me, not what people think.”(Self-Reliance, Emerson) Mr. Keating wanted the students to think for themselves do what would benefit them

in the end and focus on one’s self individually over a whole as society. Mr. Keating did this himself by teaching the students what he thought was right over the school rules and what they wanted him to. Emerson thought as if “to be great is to be misunderstood…” Emerson as well didn’t focus on the ideas of society and everyone agreeing but instead focusing on himself. Mr. Keating promoted the students to do what came to mind and to not follow the norm and the rules exactly. They demonstrated this multiple ways in the classroom, one of which was when they ripped out the pages in the Whelton textbook, not listening and reading what it was trying to tell them. Next Mr. Keating told the boys to see things from their own perspective and not to listen to what someone says about it, but to experience it for themselves and look at things form a different point of view; as standing on the top of desk took place.
“I went to the woods because I wished to
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