Dead Poets Society

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I have read the novel Dead Poets Society, written by N. H. Kleinbaum. It is based on the motion picture written by Tom Schulman, which received an Oscar reward for the “Best Original Screenplay.”

In the novel we get to follow a few young men who study at Wellton academy. Everything seems to be conservative and old fashioned until they get to meet their English teacher, Mr. John Keating. He encourages them to be independent, think for themselves and seize the day. His inspiration makes the boys more open minded and alive. Tragically it all ends when one of the boys commits suicide. Mr. Keating is hold responsible and gets dismissed.

The novel has, as I see it, three main characters. Mr. Keating is probably the most obvious amongst them. He is a middle aged man, a former student at Wellton and one of the founders of the “Dead Poets Society”. The school has recruited him as an English professor. He has a very unconventional way of teaching, for instance he tells the students to rip out pages in their textbook, kick footballs for a whole lesson and march in line and rephrase quotations. This makes the others teachers look askance at him and despise his way of teaching. The students however find him tremendous, almost all of them at least. He makes their suffering at “Hellton”, as they call it, a little more bearable. They get a new perspective of life where they can decide for themselves what to do or not. Mr. Keating sees himself as their captain on their journey to independence. His proverb is “Seize the day”, make your lives extraordinary. One boy in particular lives up to these words of wisdom and grows tremendously as a person.

The name of the boy is Neil Perry. He is a very talented, and caring young man with great courage. Unfortunately his father, Mr Perry, is very strict and doesn’t give Neil any room to use his abilities for anything else than the schoolwork that he approves. Neil has a lot of respect towards his father and doesn’t like to confront him. He finds acting very amusing and he has a huge talent for it, but he is afraid that his father shall forbid him to act if he lets him know. After a few lessons with Mr. Keating’s, he feels more confident and dares to stand up to his father and say how he feels, although he knows how his father is going to react. That’s a very good proof of courage.

He also takes on his younger and far more uncertain roommate Todd. He cares for him and doesn’t leave him alone even though he says that he wants to, because of his low self-esteem. Neil has a central part of the group and the other boys look up to him and listens to what he has got to say. I believe that’s one of the reasons why he takes the initiative to reopen the “Dead Poets Society”.

Neil’s roommate, Todd Anderson, is another important and interesting character. He is a shy, weakly built boy with very little self-esteem. He doesn’t say much and is afraid of almost everything. He doesn’t like to read out loud to the class for instance. As a matter of fact he is a very boring person until the end of the book, when he really surprises and impresses me. He writes his own poem and reads it out loud in the class, shivering and in tears but he defeat his fear. He shows even more courage when he stands up and openly protests towards the dismissal of Mr. Keating. He grows from a pale seed to a colourful flower which is independent, self-confident and brave. All this thanks to Mr. Keating’s inspiring teaching.

The other students, who are members of the “Dead Poets Society”, Knox Overstreet, Charlie Dalton, Pitts, Meeks and Cameron are of course also important for the plot. For example Knox works up the courage to tell a girl that he loves how he feels about her, although she has got a fiancé. Charlie finds the charm and romance with poetry, and uses it to express his feelings. He connects with girls that just melt when he flatters them with his poems. He even gives himself a new name, “Nuwanda”.
Mr. Keating has clearly made a big impression at these people too, but I write more about Todd and Neil, because I find their development so much greater.

The main conflict in the novel is presented early. It all begins when Neil wants to work on the yearbook, but his father forbids him. He says that he should dedicate his time to proper studies instead. Neil feels devastated and helpless, but he accepts his father’s wish with unobtrusive protests in despair. He questions his father, standing in front of his friends. Mr. Perry finds this very inappropriate and gives Neil a lecture in the meaning of respect and gratitude.

The seriousness of the conflict increases when Neil decides to audition for a part in a play. He has an outstanding natural talent for acting and he gets the honour to play one of the lead characters. Neil is thrilled and feels more alive than ever. The acting fulfils him and makes him feel as if he was on top of the world. His mood takes a real downturn when he realizes that he must tell his father. He decides however not to, because his father would get furious and forbid him to continue in the play.

When the time has come to stage the play, all of his friends are there, including Mr Keating, to watch and support him. Even though Knox came a bit late, holding hands with Chris. The act begins and Neil fascinates the whole crowd with his tremendous acting. After a while his father enters the theatre. He remains standing at the back near the entrance. When the play is over, the audience applauds, cheer and give the magnificent actors and actresses a standing ovation. The only one who doesn’t seem impressed is Mr. Perry. The boys hurry to congratulate Neil for his extraordinary acting.

The happy faces are soon gone when Mr. Perry confronts his son, grabs him hard in the arm and drags him recklessly away, leaving the others astonished. He starts yelling at Neil and tells him that he has had enough of his disobedience and that he should send him to a military school instead. Neil bursts out into tears and is completely devastated. Mr. Perry had found out through a relative that his son had started to act. When he heard that he became furious.

When they get home and Neil’s parents get to bed, he walks down into his father’s office and takes out a gun and puts an end to his misery.

The tragic death is a big setback for the school, and they need a scapegoat to blame everything on. The obvious choice is of course Mr. Keating. The members of the “Dead Poets Society” are forced to sign a paper which states that Mr. Keating had encouraged them to act against the will of their parents and teachers. If they didn’t sign, they got expelled.

The biggest antagonist in this novel is clearly Mr. Perry. He doesn’t listen to his son. When Neil tries to explain how he feels and what he would like to do, he only get the replay that he is ungrateful and disrespectful. Neil accepts time after time his father’s decisions but after a while he can’t stand it anymore. Sure Mr. Keating did teach Neil to stand up for himself and make something out of his life, but it was his father who pulled the trigger.
He didn’t do it physically but psychologically. For each time he stopped Neil from doing what he wanted to do so much, he put a piece of frustration and anguish in Neil’s mind. And these feelings grew after a while into a monster eating him up from inside. When Mr. Keating arrived he replaced the monster with a strong spirit. It made him strong, to believe in himself and that he could make his dreams come true. That was exactly what he did when he first auditioned for the part in the play. The cheers from the crowd and the happy faces made him overwhelmed with satisfaction and adrenaline. His acting was like a drug, a dream world where he could let his mind free and really give expression for his feelings. He had found a way to happiness, the meaning of life.

Then comes he shock! Just moments after applause and congratulations his father comes and tears everything apart. He completely rips everything away from him that he loves and cares for. He is destined to act, but his father doesn’t listen. When Mr. Perry takes away Neil’s chance to perform, he takes away his life. The strong spirit his son built up becomes once again a dark monster within him, now bigger then ever. So when he comes home and goes to bed, he doesn’t see any reason to wake up again. You might as well be dead if you have nothing left to live for.

The other antagonist is the teachers and members at the board at the school. They aren’t pleased with Mr. Keating’s way of teaching. He makes the students hard to control and puts, according to them, wrong values in the minds of the youngsters. But what they don’t realize is that he just opens their minds. He gives them the ability to think on their own, not just accept and do as you’re told. The opposite of what the other teachers lecture. Do as you’re told and no questions asked. The students don’t get a personality with such education. They become pale copies without a will of their own, just a wish to please the authority.

The message in the novel is easy to comprehend. “Seize the day”, “Suck the marrow out of life”. Live your life now, if you don’t it will catch up with you when you’re old and unable to do all the things you wanted to. I sure don’t want to sit in my house when I’m 60 years old thinking, “Oh, I should have done that bungee jump, taken that scooter safari or backpacked around the world.” That is really a terrifying scenario for me.

The author is very skilful in his way of giving life to the characters, especially Neil and Todd. I really felt Neil’s delight when he performed, reading it made me happy. Unfortunately it made me twice as frustrated a few pages later when his fathers destroys everything.

He also surprises in an effective way. Todd is a splendid example. As I wrote before he was a real coward, but in the end he shows the greatest courage of them all. For Instance he is the last one to sign the paper which points out Mr. Keating as guilty to Neil’s suicide. And at the last pages when Mr. Keating goes into the classroom to get his belongings, Todd explains to him that they were forced to sign, otherwise they would be expelled ...