Examples Of Transcendentalism In Dead Poets Society
Austin Thacker
Acc. English
2nd hour
21 November 2013Nonconformity
Nonconformity is failure or refusal to conform to a prevailing rule or practice, in other words it is going against the “norm” of society and listening to your heart on your ideas. The famous philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau used this idea as a main idea of their belief of transcendentalism. Transcendentalism was an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century which taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity. Since this movement, the ideas of transcendentalism have been reflected in literature, movies, and music. Dead Poets Society is a movie that reflects on this idea of transcendentalism and nonconformity. Many different urban musical artists have resonated with the same ideas. Ralph Emerson and …show more content…
Welton is the symbolism of society in the plot. In the story, the boys adapt the term “Carpe Diem” from the new English teacher at the school named Mr. Keating. He is a teacher that is un-orthodox when it comes to his teaching methods. He uses the ideas of transcendentalism in his classroom, such as nonconformity. The term of “Carpe Diem” is Greek for “Seize the Day”. Mr. Keating teaches this to his class and a particular group of boys takes the idea and runs with it. They create a group in which they urge each other to go against society and make life extraordinary. The consequences come with the rebellions, but none worse than when Knox Overstreet one of the main boys in the group commits suicide. This final act of rebellion by this boy was not meant to be negative. The suicide was meant to show that Knox could no longer be the boy his father and Welton wanted him to be and he could no longer live with himself as not being his own
Acc. English
2nd hour
21 November 2013Nonconformity
Nonconformity is failure or refusal to conform to a prevailing rule or practice, in other words it is going against the “norm” of society and listening to your heart on your ideas. The famous philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau used this idea as a main idea of their belief of transcendentalism. Transcendentalism was an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century which taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity. Since this movement, the ideas of transcendentalism have been reflected in literature, movies, and music. Dead Poets Society is a movie that reflects on this idea of transcendentalism and nonconformity. Many different urban musical artists have resonated with the same ideas. Ralph Emerson and …show more content…
Welton is the symbolism of society in the plot. In the story, the boys adapt the term “Carpe Diem” from the new English teacher at the school named Mr. Keating. He is a teacher that is un-orthodox when it comes to his teaching methods. He uses the ideas of transcendentalism in his classroom, such as nonconformity. The term of “Carpe Diem” is Greek for “Seize the Day”. Mr. Keating teaches this to his class and a particular group of boys takes the idea and runs with it. They create a group in which they urge each other to go against society and make life extraordinary. The consequences come with the rebellions, but none worse than when Knox Overstreet one of the main boys in the group commits suicide. This final act of rebellion by this boy was not meant to be negative. The suicide was meant to show that Knox could no longer be the boy his father and Welton wanted him to be and he could no longer live with himself as not being his own