Understanding movies: Dead Poets Society

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Hola everyone

Today we will try to understand yet another movie- Dead Poet’s Society, a 1989 film starring Robin Williams. It is basically a movie on the unconventional teaching techniques and it’s effectiveness. Even though the film is based on a 1980-90s London setting, a lot of the issues dealt with in the movie seem to be relevant to this day, and hence, it becomes important to discuss it.

Conventional parenting  and teaching

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The first part of the movie tries to explain the current parenting and teaching that the students experience. We see Neil Perry’s father forcing his son to leave his extra-curricular activities and rather focus on his academics and pursue a career in medicine. This academics-first approach is also endorsed by the teachers at their school. Their results-oriented teaching style includes teaching bookish knowledge and flushing the students with loads of assignments. Furthermore, the strict disciplinary rules at the school and dorms just add to the burden of students.

When problems depicted in a 1989 movie seem to be relevant even today, it just shows how less we have progressed as a society through the years. While this sort of tough-love, military-inspired way of parenting and teaching may seem to be good in theory, there have been numerous studies done over the years which show the counter-productiveness of this approach. How many more years do we need to realize that the conventional way doesn’t work? and that is does more harm than good?

Carpe diem

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For the first lesson, John Keating (played by Robin Williams) breaks the monotony by taking his students to the lobby where he shows them pictures of the successful alumni of their school and teaches them the importance of the present by using the Latin phrase Carpe diem, which means ‘seize the day’.

And this lesson motivated the students to start their own Dead Poets Society. In the beginning of their meeting, they would read aloud this quote which beautifully summarizes the idea of Carpe diem:

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms...”- Henry David Thoreau

We all know that death is inevitable and that it could come at anytime (even in the next few seconds). So why waste our present doing things we don’t like or thinking about things we don’t care? That’s the whole purpose of the first lesson: Carpe diem.

But here’s why this idea needs a little sharpening. While the idea of Carpe diem is great, we need to be careful on how it’s interpreted by the people. Because while on one end, it can motivate people to work hard and pursue careers in fields they are genuinely passionate about, on the other end, it can also motivate ruthless (and sometimes) criminal behavior. While this philosophy can motivate you to go and climb that mountain you were thinking of, the same philosophy can be used to buy expensive things you don’t need, not work and enjoy all day, or maybe even rob a bank! because hey, ‘seize the day’ right?

And this is what happened with the students in the movie as well. While this concept helped them start a club and explore poetry and literature, they used the same concept later to justify their ruthless acts and hence became one of the reasons due to which John Keating was fired and they were pushed back into the same old teaching regime.


So, what should be the optimum strategy then?
Well, if you ask me, the optimum strategy to live life would be to use your past experiences to learn from your mistakes, try not to commit the same mistakes and work hard towards your desired goal in the present, and just use the future to give you a direction in which you should work in the present and nothing else.

Life is like a sea voyage where you use your past experiences to steer the ship through the storms and the waves (which denote the problems or various situations of life), your plans for the future are like a compass which help you steer the ship in the right direction and your goals are like a destination on a rough map which motivates you to keep going. (Note that just like the compass has multiple directions, there can be multiple ways to reach your destination)

So, while you have to deal with the waves (problems in life) and enjoy the winds (pleasures in life) in the present, it’s also equally important that you stay within the limits of your ship and keep steering in the right direction. It’s rather dumb to analyze your mistakes of your past while on the voyage or keep thinking about when you will reach the island because you don’t know when you will reach (or rather will you ever reach there in the first place). So why ruminate over the past or anticipate your future.

All you have with you is your present, it’s these winds and these waves that are in the present and are real. So why not live in the present and find your happiness in the present, i.e., find your happiness in the process of achieving your goal rather than waiting to be happy when you reach your goal. And that is the right interpretation of the phrase: Carpe diem.

Importance of perspective

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In the second lesson, John Keating makes the students stand on his table, to emphasize the importance of viewing from various perspectives. While the movie focuses on the aspect of viewing the world differently, which can help create art and poetry that is unique and authentic, we can apply this concept to many realms of life.

Be it a tricky math problem or a complicated social situation, we often find ourselves stuck and unable to find the solution, and we cram our heads over it while all we might need is a change of perspective. We are conditioned to thinking in a particular way for every situation, and while that way might work for most of the situations, every now and then we are faced with some situations where it isn’t possible to find the solution using our conditioned way of thinking, and that is why we should learn to think from various perspectives. This important life skill not only helps us steer through our problems, but also helps us becomes unique and authentic in this ordinary world.

Some ways which can help us think from various perspectives is reading about different domains like science, literature, art, fiction etc., or travelling to different places and exploring their cultures. While these experiences help build your perspectives, they also help you find your passion since it is only through learning or experiencing about a thing that you know whether that thing is your passion or not.

This idea of gaining different experiences is also emphasized in the subsequent lessons where Keating tries to integrate sports and music into their learning about literature so that they can come up with their own unique way of thinking and write their own poem. The importance of this idea is also widely discussed and lauded by David Epstein in his book: “Range: Why generalists triumph in a specialized world” (will be discussing various topics of this book in the future).

Face your fears

Source: That Moment In

When the day arrives where every student is asked to recite his own poem in front of the class, Todd Anderson, being a socially anxious person, says that he couldn't come up with a poem. But Keating knows and believes that there is a poet in every person and it's just the matter of finding your inner self, and so he pushes Todd to come up with an impromptu poem in front of the class.
This helps Todd overcome his social anxiety (because he thought he was worthless and hence didn't share his thoughts- and hence the anxiety) as his impromptu poem makes him realize he isn't worthless after all. 

Facing your fears is one of the best ways to discover your true self. Apart from helping you find your genuine interests, it helps you build perspectives and discover your authenticity. This is what the trends like "Bucket list" or phrases like "Been there, done that" are basically about.

These experiences, though extremely difficult and painful, can be so life-changing that many people are able to completely transform their lives after that experience, many athletes choose to play the sport they were afraid of earlier, and all it took was that one "face your fear" experience to find their true passion. And as already discussed in the previous blog on pain (Pain: The Realest of Emotions), it is only through some sort of pain that you get real changes in your life.

But again, always know your limits. It doesn't mean that you jump off a building to face your "fear of heights". What you could do instead is go for adventure sports like bungee jumping or parachuting to face your fears sensibly (so that you live to face your other fears 😂)

Conclusion

While this movie fantasized the study of literature, and disregarded the very foundations and the structure on which literature and art stands, it certainly did have important life lessons embedded in them. So, maybe we should appreciate what the movie has to offer rather than focusing on the negative aspects of it.

With that said, the central take away from this movie is CARPE DIEM! Go out, explore, face your fears, and do what you are supposed to as everything else is a lie, and it is this moment that you have with you that is real and true...

Written and Edited by: Yash Jayesh Doshi