Dead poets society

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Summary

In the fall of 1959 Neil Perry and starts school at Welton academy in Vermont, he is sent there by his parents to study hard and then later become a doctor. With help from Weltons new English professor Mr. Keating, Neil discovers his love and talent for poems and especially theatre. Mr. Keating was once a student at Welton, and had been a member of the “Dead poets society” . This society was not at all appreciated by the school board. Neil and some of his friend decided to revive this secret society, the only thing they tried to achieve with their club is best described by its opening message: “ I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life!” and that’s just what they did, until the story takes a real turn.


Characters

In this story there are many significant characters such as; the inspiring Mr. Keating, Neil Perry who is completely controlled by his very strict father, but still trying his best to follow his own wishes in life. Todd Anderson, initially shy and modest, then later on encouraged by Mr. Keating and His new friends. Knox Overstreet who is trying to win the heart of a girl named Chris whom he´s deeply and madly in love with. And Charlie, also called Nuwanda who´s the untamed and rowdy one in this story.

There are two main conflicts in this story, first we have the disputes between Neil and his father, this is a rather classical father-to-son conflict, Neil wants to follow his heart and become an actor, and His father Mr. Perry wants him to go to study medicine because “he knows what´s best for him”..

The other major conflict is between Mr. Keating and the rest of the school board, Mr. Keating´s unorthodox way of teaching is not appreciated by the other teachers. Mr. Keating is trying to get the students to think for themselves and to love poetry in all its beauty and despair. For an old prep school in the late fifties this was not at all appropriate.

There are as well some minor conflicts that you don’t really notice until you’ve gotten a bit deeper into the story, for example; the timeless fight between good and bad, in this case the bad side is represented by Chris´s boyfriend Chet, the typical jock, and on the good side there´s Knox, the clever romantic kind of guy, who is so eagerly trying to win Chris´s heart (preferably without getting to beaten up by Chet and his jock-friends).


Analysis

The title “Dead poets society” instantly gives you a hint of what the story is about, something mysteriously and secret.
I believe that the author of this story was meaning to give a message to all of us, to “ Make our lives extraordinary”, Carpe diem, to seize the day, “after all in the end we´ll all just be food for maggots” so why not make the best of it.


My thoughts of the story

The dead poets society was rather easy to read, perhaps too easy, the book was very alike the film which I have seen a few times. Then there´s the everlasting question; which one did you like the best, the film or the book?
In this case I have to say the film, sure the book was...