Seize the Day, Make Your Life Extraordinary

Rating: 10/10 (3 November 2007)

Dead Poets Society is one of the few films that are hard to forget once watched. This film is an influential film that is capable of changing how we see reality and life. It's about an extraordinary English teacher named John Keating, who uses unique ways through literature and poetry, to teach his students about life. He once said in the film, "We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering  these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love  these are what we stay alive for." The film was opened in a well known prestigious Welton Academy which was an all-boys prep school. The school was popular for its four principles: tradition, honor, discipline and excellence. There was a group of friends which was consisted of: Neil Perry, Todd Anderson, Knox Overstreet, Charlie Dalton, Richard Cameron, Steven Meeks and Gerard Pitts.
Neil Perry was a student that excelled in many subjects in school. He did everything that his father wanted him to do. When Mr. Keating told him to seize the day and to live an extraordinary life, he defied his father's wishes. He followed his dream, acting on stage, which was not approved by his father. He was pulled out of the school. He wanted to tell his father his own decisions but, he did not succeed and opted to commit suicide using his father's gun.
Todd Anderson was a shy boy. He had an older brother who also studied on the same school. That's why he needed to live up to his reputation. He also thought that everything inside of him is worthless and embarrassing. Mr. Keating proved him wrong, he told him that he knew that something inside him was worth a great deal. And from that day on, his life was heavily influenced and changed.
Knox Overstreet was a persistent guy. He met a girl named Chris and instantly fell in love with her. He desired to see her after their first encounter. Later on, he realized that Chris already had a boyfriend. Yet he persisted in courting her. He didn't care if he gets punched or humiliated. He used poetry in wooing Chris. He even said "She's gonna hate me. The Danburrys will hate me. My parents will kill me. All right, goddamn it. You're right. Carpe diem. Even if it kills me." Charlie Dalton was a rebel and a dare devil. He did anything that pleased him. He once took his personal freedom too far and published an article that proposed girls to be allowed at Welton to give the boys some pleasure. The authorities learnt of it and interrogated Charlie. Charlie told them that he acted alone. Later in the story, he changed his name to Newanda.
John Keating is an extraordinary teacher. He used unusual teaching methods that any other ordinary teachers won't approve of. He taught outside the classroom, tried different approaches and ensured that it was not boring. He hated the idea of learning literature by doing scales of quality and popularity ratings. Instead, he ensured that his students learned to stretch their minds, to think for themselves and to exercise their own rights to defy acts of love for literature and life. He simply was a one of a kind and an amazing teacher.
One of the things that John Keating emphasized was "Carpe Diem" which meant seize the day, make your lives extraordinary. He showed his students a picture of former Welton students in a trophy case. He explained that they were once like them. Each one of them was full of their own hopes and dreams. Only they themselves knew if they made their lives extraordinary since these alumni are now dead.
This made the group of friends revive an old literary club called the Dead Poets Society. Neil Perry once read "I went to the woods to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, and not when I came to die, that I had not lived." This simply tells us that being a member of the Dead Poets Society meant that they have decided that they won't be held as captives by their fathers or anyone else anymore. They will decide on their own and do thing that they want to do. Nobody can stop them, not even death. What matters is that they followed their own paths. This would be the only way for them to experience everything that life has to offer; everything that they had not experienced when they were enslaved from their parent's expectations and other people's standards. And when death swallows them up, they can say that they had truly lived an extraordinary life. They had seized the days.