The Dead Poets Society-Initial Response.

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The Dead Poets Society—Initial Response

Louis Li

Professor Keating is a great teacher. He teaches because he loves to teach. Not only does he teach his students literature, but he also teaches them about life. Professor Keating  challenges them to question conventional views by standing on their desks and ripping their textbooks. The story takes time at 1959, I think this setting is important because it is the time of industrial revoluntion. The society needs high educated people in terms of knowledge and technology. And the students in the movie are just the slaves of machinaries.

After watching this film, it leaves me feeling kind of sad and thinking about our society.I like the teacher‘s ideas because I do not want to be bonded to platitude of our society; accept things without questioning. In order for our society to progress we have to have new ideas. It is Galileo who breaks the conventional ways of thinking that the earth is the center of the universe, even though facing the pressure of the church and death. It is Darwin who challenged the god, who let us know the truth. It is also Edison, who built over 1000 inventions in his life. None of these can be accomplished without independent thinking and individualism. Without creative and independent thinking, humans will stuck in the stage when we eat raw meat and lived in cages. However, as our society progresses, it is becoming more sysmetic and technological. We do not question as much as we did. As humans, “ we are born free, but there’s chains everywhere.” Chains such as conventional beliefs and morals bonded our thinking, much or less.

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The movie also tells us that we should not lose our soul to conformity of social norms. I understood how people’s lives can be wasted if not given the opportunity to show what they can do. I also questioned myself, what do I really want to do in my life if there is no pressure from my parents’ friends and teachers, etc, after I watched the part about Neil. His parents did not understand his true feelings, and he never told them what he really feels. I did not really get why Neil did not tell his parents what he ...

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