Dead Poets Society, Directed By Peter Weir And A Separate Peace By John Knowles

Stress for students can come from many things including academics, sports, family, college, and their social life. Dead Poets Society directed by Peter Weir and A Separate Peace by John Knowles are stories about adolescent boys that attend strict all-boys private schools, Welton and Devon. In Dead Poets Society one of the main characters, Neil Perry is an excellent student with a strict father who pushes him to become something Neil does not want. In A Separate Peace Gene Forrester, another excellent student feels pressure to compete with his peers to be the best. At both Devon and Welton there is a lot of pressure being put on the boys studying there to be the best. However this pressure becomes overwhelming and causes the boys to do something impulsive.

When Mr. Perry tells Neil that he is making him quit being the editor of the yearbook he says, “After you've finished medical school and you're on your own, then you can do as you damn well please. But until then, you do as I tell you. Is that clear?” Neil has a constant feeling of distress due to him trying to please his father, and to do well in school. Luckily, Neil is at the top of his class, but he wants to do more, especially with his acting. He does not ask his father for permission to do the play because he is afraid of him and of him saying no. Neil’s father pressures him into not doing the things he loves to do. In A Separate Peace, the protagonist Gene feels a sense of competition all around him at school. Everyone at Devon is trying to get more social power over each other. Gene sees his relationship with his best friend Finny as a competition as well. He sees the competition as an academic and athletic competition. He thinks, “I was more and more certainly becoming the best student in the school; Phineas was without question the best athlete, so in that way we were even.