OH, CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

Rating: 10/10 (2 August 2003)

Staged entirely within the secular ambiance of a Boarding School where values such as tradition, honor, discipline and excellence are stressed out, `Dead Poets Society' proposes a critical analysis of the system's preaching of a line of indoctrination close to that of populism where freedom and variety of choice are guaranteed to those who condescend to the system's pre-selected choices.
Concomitantly, several facets of social incongruence interplay within the depicted social strata proportionally to the expansion of the characters' inter-dynamics.
Furthermore, stereo-typification among the characters denounces the existence of oppression within the oppressed, an empirical trait probably osmotically absorbed from the macro-sphere, setting equal grounds for all dissimilar plans which will develop within the story.
The most fundamental argument therein, nonetheless, lies in pondering the purpose of life as to its finality while keeping the value of altruism omnipresent. Thus, a powerful argument as to the symbiotic interrelation between qualification and quantification is set as to overshadow all other disseminating lines of thought throughout the story, a point whose substantiality is intertextually argued under the pretense that lyricism cannot and must not be scientifically equated as any attempt in accepting such equating would signify a loss of perspective on one's humanity.
Nevertheless, it is further argued that daring will necessarily lead to knowledge which, in turn, will lead to empowerment; leading, thus, to dissent from the system's coercions; a paradox which dictates the empowerment of the individual through sound analytical thought to be the only way to commune from authentic freedom, a byproduct only achievable through non-compliance and non-conformance to the pre-established.
The correlation between the authority of the overseer and the humiliation of the overseen is one portrayed as omnipresent. It is further argued that abuse of power by the overseer will generate morbidity of the social dynamics among the overseen and that, in order to withstand successful opposition to the overseer, the camaraderie amongst the overseen must accommodate the vulnerability of the self as to denote acceptance of individual differences and subsequent intra-micro-sphere maturation, further recognizing the possibility of simplicity while concurrently denying the plausibility of ordinary.
Dictating that a certain level of anarchy is necessary within each individual, it is also demonstrated, nonetheless, that should no conscious attention be paid to the social development a micro-sphere, it will become tribal and, once self-actualized, it is likely to exhibit patterns of behavior analog to those objected in mother-sphere.
Altruism, which is an essential component to the dissent from the overseer's oppression, will lead to personal sacrifice, whose extent should be accurately conveyed as to the capability and finality of each individual and action respectively given ultimate altruism will lead to ultimate frustration, leading, in turn, to a refraction as to the sense of personal empowerment.
Carpe Diem!