Dead Poets Society is the 1989 work of director Peter Weir and writer Tom Schulman. This movie take place at an all boys boarding school in Vermont. It is the end of summer and the very beginning of the new school year when this new english teacher is introduced to all the boys. This English teacher is played by Robin Williams. The school is very posh and very strict with how the boys are and how the teachers give the curriculum to the boys. Robin Williams character (Mr. John Keating) has a very peculiar way of teaching. He does not go by the textbooks and does not completely follow the schools rules about teaching. He gets the boys involved with the class; he takes them outside and relates the class to the teenagers lives. A group of the boys later find a book that belonged to John Keating that was marked with “Dead Poets Society”. They then asked their teacher about it and then started the society up again with the help of Mr. Keating because the society was against the policy of the school.
This movie coveys the irregular way to approach school and life. Through conformity Mr. Keating is going against the conformed school and classroom environment that the school was known for. When you conform, you go with everything everyone else is doing. That is exactly what Mr. Keating taught his students to go against. Most of the boys then realized that there is more to life and learning than just sitting at a desk and reading from a textbook. One of the main characters Neil Perry was Mr. Keatings “biggest fan” Neil believed him in everything. Neil supported all of the unconventional teachings presented by Mr. Keating. Opposite of Neil there is another boy named Richard Cameron that was skeptical and wary at first and did end up getting Mr. Keating fired because Richard Cameron thought his teachings were not right and the school board believed Richard Cameron.
Throughout the movie obedience is another big theme in this movie. Obedience would be defined for this movie as doing what you are told and being cooperative with a figure of authority. This whole movie is about denying or going against authority. Authority here being the school. Most of the boys, again were all for going ‘against’ the school and following their own path and finding out who they are and want to be with the help of Mr. Keating and his teaching style.
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Many of the boys at the school were under Informational Social Influence. Informational Social Influence would consist of being influenced by another group of people or just a single person just because of them being there. The whole school was under Informational Social Influence because of the school board and the schools authority. All of the teachers, principles, and sponsors for the school would be there watching the boys to show them how to behave and act. They were also watching what boys were doing mostly at all times just to keep the reputation up as this very prestigious and preppy boarding school
Toward the middle to the end of the movie Neil Perry started feeling this sense of Depersonalization. Depersonalization can occur when a person feels disconnected from their body and emotions and becomes just very critical of themself and can not really find their purpose. This was because of his father wanting him to go into the field of medicine when he wanted to pursue a career in acting or just wanting to work in the theater. Neil becomes very unsure of what he he should do; should he tell his father he wants to go toward the path of acting or just keep letting his parents think he is going into the medical field. Mr. Keating tries to tell Neil that it would be better just to tell his parents and they would understand, and if Neil doesn’t he would just be making the situation worse. Neil participated in a play at school without his parents consent or even knowledge. His father finds out about the play and goes to get Neil. After the play, Neil’s father drags him out of the theater and takes him home. Neil’s parents now know that he has no intent to go into the medical field, and after a big fight Neil is in his bed very sad and mad all at the same time. So much so, that he goes down to his father’s office and finds his father’s gun and kills himself. This is a very extreme case of Depersonalization, but this was also not the only reason for him deciding to do what he did, but I think it could be one of the reasons.
With the struggle of Normal Social Influences it was hard for the boys in Mr. Keating’s class to go against the rest of the school. Normal Social Influences are just how people influence you in whatever you do, or when you do something just so someone will like you. The boys who started the Dead Poets Society were definitely going against the Normal Social Influences just by being in the society. The rest of the school are conformed and have given into the Normal Social Influences because the school was very well-known and most of the boys knew that they were almost guaranteed to get into a very good college.
