Dead Poets Society

     "Carpe Diem," is one of the many lessons taught by Mr. Keating in Dead Poets Society by Peter Weir. A new English teacher teaches a group of young men some important life lessons. Mr. Keating inspires his students through his love of poetry and shows them that being and individual is important, sometimes you just need a different outlook, and mostly that in order to get the most out of life and the experiences in it you have to seize the day.

     The boys at Welton Academy go from class to class with the idea that what is important in life is the job you have and the goal to become a doctor or lawyer. It isn't until Mr. Keating shows them his side and idea of what learning is that they realize it is alright to be an individual. The way he teaches his class and his methods go against everything they are used to. Mr. Keating has a very different way of teaching poetry and proves him self as an individual in the school. He shows the boys that it is encouraged to be different and pursue what you love. His student Neil Perry especially takes to Mr. Keating and goes against his father to preform in the play "A Mid Summer Nights Dream." Mr. Keating encourages Neil to tell his father about his passion for theater and follow his true dreams becoming and individual.

     When the boys have trouble understanding Mr. Keating he stands on his desk and exclaims that sometimes you just need a different view of things, he then has each of his students come and stand on his desk and look. The way Mr. Keating teaches his class is very different from any other class of theirs, because of his outlook on the education system. All of his students really start to understand him as he shows them where his point of view comes from. This helps a lot of the boys find themselves and what they really want. Mr. Keating has all the boys rip out the text books definition of poetry because he feels they should all enjoy it and not try and learn it in the same concept as math or physics. He has a different view of poetry and once his students learn to see things the same as him they all really start to have fun and be creative with writing and understanding poetry.

    In his very first class teaching at Welton Academy Mr. Keating gives the boys a lecture about how they must seize the day before it is too late. He encourages them to do what they truly want to. A group of students who especially take to him create the "Dead Poets Society" just as Mr. Keating and his friends had in their days at the academy. He inspires them and brings passion to what they do. Neil Perry followed carpe diem and preformed in the play when he knew his father would be upset. The boys all learn and do things that they most likely wouldn't have imagined they could really do. They learn to inspire each other and push each other to "seize the day."

     Mr. Keating truly proved himself to be an inspiring role model of an educator as he taught his students many life lessons. He set an example of himself and showed them that being an individual is important which is why he was able to inspire them in such a different way. He also told them that sometimes you just need a different outlook on something, and that's what he gave them. All his students changed the way they look and English class and their education. Although he taught them a lot the lesson he showed them the most was carpe diem. They all learned how to make the most out of everything while they still can, which is what Mr. Keating did during his short period of time at Welton Academy. The lessons taught in the movie were all strong themes, though these seemed to stand out the most as all the characters learned them.
    

Discussing Poetry

What Woman Deserve

     Women deserve better is the powerful message delivered by Sonya Renee in her poem What Women Deserve. She speaks about how we are said to be a feminist country and that everybody has rights, when there is still a lot of discrimination against woman. The theme is clear in that society says woman's rights are being heard and met, when in reality they usually aren't. "With no chance of getting a better job, because you can't have infants at the university" is one of the many realistic quotes of Renee about how hard it is for teen mothers. The poem sets a strong mood of empowerment and it leaves you wanting things to be better for women. What I especially liked about this poem is the way she describes everything. Sonya Renee speaks with a strong sense of reality and everything is in a modern, relatable manner that reaches out to people. 

Sierra DeMulder

     "Did you put your own heart in the freezer next to the thought of me?" Sierra DeMulder asks the son she hypothetically speaks to and speaks about in the unnamed poem she preformed at the national poetry slam. She is constantly asking him and herself questions of what she did for him to become this. "Did [she] teacher [him] to pluck families apart like flower petals?" Questioning every aspect that she did while raising him to see what she did that he would grow up to be a murder. The strange mood and concept of the poem is what I find so exciting about it. It is unlike any other poem that I have come across. DeMulder sets the theme of the poem when she asks if  "will be forgiven for the sins [she] did not commit, but created." The theme is that is it just the way her son is or is there anything she could have possibly done that would cause him to be the way he is. What I enjoy about this poem is the unusual thrill I get with each line she reads.

If I Should Have a Daughter

Sarah Kay speaks a creative and original list of what she would do as a mother in the poem If I Should Have a Daughter. She comes up countless analogy's of how she's going to guide her daughter through the rough times of growing up. Kay says she will prepare for her first heartbreak by always keeping rain boots and chocolate around "because there is no heartbreak that chocolate cant fix." There is a few present themes throughout the poem but the main one being that you will always have some one there for you no matter what, which is why Kay says "instead of mom she's going to call [her] point B." She says this so her daughter can always find her way back. What I like about the poem is how Kay discusses what she will do to help her grow up and how she will be there for her daughter no matter what. The mood is quite compassionate because she makes us all feel like that's what were going to do and puts our mothers in a new light. Sarah Kay's detail of exactly what she will do is enticing and relatable.