Keating's Individuals Throughout the 1950's and into the 60's families were very strict. One would not question his or her parents on a decision that they made because it was viewed as disgraceful and disrespectful to ones family and elders. In the movie Dead Poets Society, directed by Peter Weir, the young men are constantly redefining the meaning of individuality. With the help of their English teacher, Mr. Keating, the boys break the traditional code of conduct at Welton Academy, the all boys private school that they attend, and define who they are and want to be.
One of the first things Mr. Keating taught his students is "to be nonconformist in thought." The students act upon this by reopening at Welton Academy the Dead Poets Society. The Dead Poets Society is a group of free thinkers who are looking for an escape from the strict pillars of the Academy.
English: Bust of the twenty-fourth Prime Minister ...
The Hon. Paul Keating (offical portrait)
Dead Poets SocietyAnother thing that Mr. Keating does is on the first day of class he has his students rip out the introduction to their poetry book, which includes a section on how to rate a poem. He feels this is wrong because someone should not be able to tell another person what to think and what is in fact a good poem. He believes that is all up to the reader to decide how good of a poem the piece is by its influence upon the reader. It is in this manor that Mr. Keating inspires his students to redefine their individuality.
Another example of how Mr. Keating does influence his students is teaching them to "suck the marrow out of life but don't choke on the bone." By teaching them many lessons on this, he helps his students establish when it is correct to voice one's own opinions and when it is not correct. By teaching his students this he teaches them to become whole individuals instead of out of control radicals in society. This is the difference between who his students become and what they could have became. Mr. Keating realizes that what he was teaching the boys was actually changing who they were, which required teaching them the whole story and not just part of it. Because of Mr. Keating's teaching the students to be smart and wise with their actions and not carefree he teaches them to be true individualists.
Mr. Keating is a very peculiar character. This is because there is a time where he stands on his desks, asks his students to do the same, and then tells them to "Always view things from different prospectives." By teaching them this he is telling them not to just go by what other people have to say but to go find their own views on it. He teaches them not to always take what they are taught, and what they think, for granted. But instead to question it in order to try to see it differently to maybe find a way of looking at it that they may not have thought of. It is by this example that Mr. Keating taught his students to be individuals and have their own opinions and ideas, not always what everyone else says they should do.
In the film Dead Poets Society, directed by Peter Weir, Mr. Keating is a very controversial teacher at Wellton Academy who teaches his students to be individuals. Mr. Keating does this in several different ways. The first manor in which he accomplishes this is by telling them to "Always view things from different prospectives," and not always the ones that other people think. Another lesson he teaches his students is to "suck the marrow out of life but not to choke on the bone," or to be wise about the decisions that they make. The final objective that Mr. Keating establishes is to "be nonconformists in thought," which simply means don't always go along with an idea because everyone else is, and they should figure out their own opinion on it
English: American President William Jefferson (Bil...
English: Paul Keating in 2007.
Students in the incubation room at the Woodbine Ag...