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Dead Poets Society Transcendentalism

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In the beginning of the movie Dead Poets Society, a new English teacher is introduced as Professor John Keating. During his classes, Mr. Keating is shown teaching Transcendentalist and Romanticist ways instead of the more normal way of teaching like the other teachers at Welton Academy practice. Examples of Keating’s different teaching styles include bringing his students outside for different poetry exercises, ripping out pages of their textbook, and influencing the concept of carpe diem, or seize the day. Keating’s way of teaching though, brings up the question of whether or not this brought more grief or more happiness on the students in the movie. Even with some of the terrible outcomes Mr. Keating’s teaching brought, the students of Welton Academy were brought more happiness than grief when acting out their Transcendental and Romantic beliefs. To put this into different words, Henry David Thoreau once said “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” This quote shows how the young men in this movie lived their lives after Mr. Keating showed them the ways of the Transcendentalists and the Romantics. Neil Perry was inspired to try out for a play and got the lead part of Puck in A Midsummer Night's …show more content…

When Mr. Keating taught the young men about Transcendentalism and Romanticism, he probably didn’t expect all of the outcomes that came with it. When Neil’s father found out about the play, he unenrolled Neil from Welton and enrolled him into a military academy that would add on extra years of school. Later that night, Neil ended up committing suicide, leaving his father to blame his death on Mr. Keating, who would later be dismissed from teaching at Welton. Charles Dalton, also known as Charlie or Nawanda, snuck in an article that supported letting girls into Welton Academy, an all boys school, and after later getting into a fight, he was expelled from the

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Throughout the movie, Neil went to a cave away from people. Furthermore, Neil’s friends joined him to have fun with the Dead Poets Society, a group Neil recreated after hearing that his professor, Mr. Keating, had been involved in when he was a student at Welton. Overall, Neil Perry was a great example of transcendentalism throughout the entire movie. One transcendental quality Neil possessed was his love for the beauty of words. Neil Perry was a good student; he wanted to do what was best for him and not what his mom and dad wanted.

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Dead Poets Society Essay               It was an abnormally hot summer day. July 1st the start of summer baseball. I was woken up by my very obnoxious alarm and immediately shot up out of my bed knowing it was the beginning of my favorite time of year.

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In the 19th and 20th century transcendentalism was a new and exciting topic that caused tremendous controversy. In the novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless was a man with a very unique character. In more detailed words Chris McCandless was a transcendentalist. His actions and moods played a big part in his life, from beginning to end. He was a transcendentalist because of his self-reliance, confidence and non-conformity.

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Transcendentalism in The Incredibles The movie, The Incredibles, is a Disney film about a family of superheros trying to maintain their secret identities. They try to maintain ordinary, regular lives after the use of superpowers is suddenly banned by the government for the safety of their cities. All was well and fairly normal until their family was directly targeted by a new villain, Buddy Pine (aka. Syndrome). Despite their progress in the area of living normal lives, they’re throw in a series of tough situations that require the whole family to tap into who they truly are.

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“So many people live in unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation” (57). Chris McCandless was determined to not be one of those men, he strived for a life in solitude, away from the demands of society. For that reason he went on an epic transcendental experience that took him from Mexico to Alaska. Along the way, he met and made an impact on peoples’ lives, people like Wayne Westenberg and Ronald Franz. Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild discusses Chris’s journey, and makes the reader question Chris’s reasons for going out into the wild.

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Kevin Sun Mrs. Cohen English 2CP --D February 22, 2018 Another Perspective The film Into the Wild is based on the life of Chris McCandless, a young man who rejected the consumerist society of America in order to live a more simple life. Through his travels, Chris carried essays by Transcendentalist philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, suggesting that McCandless is impacted by Transcendentalist ideals. Two key tenets of Transcendentalism that clearly influenced McCandless’ choices are the value of simplicity and the importance of self-reliance.

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Was Chris McCandless a true transcendentalist? Transcendentalism is a system developed by Immanuel Kant, based on the idea that, in order to understand the nature of reality, one must first examine and analyze the reasoning process that governs the nature of experience. Influenced by romanticism, Platonism, and Kantian philosophy, it taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity, and its members held progressive views on feminism and communal living. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were central figures. In Jon Krakauer’s novel, Into the Wild, McCandless is viewed as a transcendentalist.

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In Mary Lawson's "Crow Lake" and Tom Wayman's "Students," the students seem to undermine the importance of their teachers. The professer in "Students" is more observant of the learning techniques used by his students to pass his class than he appears. In "Crow Lake," the teacher is more passionate about the topic she is teaching than she is portraying. In both passages, the teachers have more knowledge and experience in regards to their topic than they are given credit for by their students. In both Mary Lawson's "Crow Lake" and Tom Wayman's "Students," the students are oblivious to the signifgance of their teacher's passion and experiences for their courses.

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Felisha Mann Transcendentalism is present in today’s culture in ways we do not even notice. It is in our music, television, and movies. These parts of today 's culture show free thought, nonconformity, and the role of nature. In Today 's music a common transcendentalism theme is shown.

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“I went into the woods because i wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.” This meant that you live how you want to live and do whatever you want to be free from conformity in your life. This quote by Henry David Thoreau is what the Dead Poets Society and its members lived by everyday. The transcendentalist members always acted differently and disobeyed many so that they could follow in the footsteps of the original Dead Poets Society.

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In Emerson's views, people should “not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”(citation). Based on Emerson’s thoughts, people should not follow the crowd, but instead live their lives and leave their mark on the Earth. Emerson thoughts come from a philosophical movement of the nineteenth century called transcendentalism. Transcendentalism focuses on religious renewal, literary innovation, and social transformation (encyclopedia.com). Because of their belief that God exists in everyone and nature, and that knowledge comes from individual intuition, led to the highlight of individualism, self-reliance, and breaking free from traditions(citation).

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In the Dead Poets Society, the idea of conformity is the tradition for students in Welton Academy. For instance, in school, students we forced to dresses the same school blazers and follow the same "four pillars" (tradition, honor, discipline, excellence). That shows the repetition in school spirits even though it can't work for everyone. Similarly, in Neil's family, his father seems to care a lot about his son's success by layouts his own path to become a doctor. This illustrates through the discipline and conformity which leads to achieve 'success' but in a narrow, material sense of getting good grades, going to a good school to get a good job.

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280 Words | 2 Pages

Neil’s father, Mr. Perry was responsible for his son’s suicide. “Neil couldn’t deal with the idea that to give up acting was to quit playing the roles that he lived every day, and so he killed himself because he “realized that he had not lived” up to that point” (See). Neil was not an honest person to himself or his father. Neil’s father wants the best for him and is able to give him the best education. “You have opportunities that I never even dreamt of and I am not going to let you waste them” (Schulman).

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By analyzing the film, viewers can effortlessly recognize Mr. Keating’s lessons about the opportunities of freedom and the consequences of conformity is shown through Neil Perry, Knox Overstreet, and Todd Anderson.    First, Neil Perry learned about the opportunities of freedom and the consequences of conformity. At the beginning of the movie, Neil obeyed his father’s every demand.

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Mr. Keating is viewed as rowdy and rebellious to the conservative structure the preparatory usually implements. Neil’s parents are viewed as dominating Neil’s life. Neil parents are overbearing about what Neil needs to do and who he needs to become. Todd thinks his parents favor his brother. They are always comparing him to his brother that previously graduated.

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