Dead Poets Society

Introduction

Recently, I watched "Dead Poets Society" for the first time. Instead of providing a synopsis, I recommend that you watch it yourself. In my opinion, the film's message revolves around tradition, conformity, and identity. The theme of tradition is clear as the students learn their subjects within this framework. Conformity is highlighted because they begin to see themselves as members of the inherent characteristics of the human experience rather than being exclusively members of a human class. Identity emerges as they view the world from new perspectives, which is languages' primary purpose, secondary is communication. This leads them to make decisions based on their newfound zealotry in varying degrees of success.

Sucking the marrow out of life

There is a scene where Mr. Keating explains to Charlie what it means to be daring by saying, "Sucking the marrow out of life doesn't mean choking on the bone. Sure there's a time for daring and there's a time for caution, and a wise man understands which is called for."

The same maxim exists everywhere. For example, in the engineering's tradition of redundancy we have developed risk-averse survival mechanisms against the indiscriminate prejudice of the sea, land, and air. This includes tides, currents, and tsunamis for the sea; earthquakes, wildfires, and landslides for the land; and nitrogen and oxygen in the air that treat everything equally without favoritism to its size, shape, or material. Being daring against the engineering tradition's principle of redundancy is shortsighted to the indiscriminate prejudice of the sea, land, and air. Similarly, being daring against the academy Headmaster by yelling, "Mr. Nolan, it's for you. It's God. He says we should have girls at Welton", at an all boys institution, is stupid. Both are shortsighted to the virtue of the school of discipline they belong to.

The point

To conform to tradition doesn't mean to totally let go of individualism. It simply means being smart about the opportunities that this outdated system provides instead of having no system at all. Similarly, being against tradition does not imply disregarding everything that tradition has built over time.