Dead Poets Society

For the first week class we watched “Dead Poet Society" and I had never seen it before. It really blew me away with the power of words being shown in such a unique way. In the beginning it was just a way to get girls and a way to rebel against their school, but it turned into a way of life. They took the calling of Carpe Diem and lived it out to the fullest. For boys whose whole lives have been planned out by their parents this was the one thing that they had to be their own person. They kept bringing more into it and with that raising the stakes. It didn't become important to them because of the fact that they were reading poetry, it was that as a group they were doing something for themselves, that they wanted, that they pursued, that they loved, that they chose. For once in their lives they were able to make their own decisions and become the men they wanted to be. 

Under their own new law of Carpe Diem they lived life to the fullest and seized the day. If living that kind of life meant breaking some rules they didn't care. They were ignorant and stupid, but they were living their own lives on impulse. Not the lives that their parents were forcing upon them. Their parents wanted the best for their kids sure, but when the best comes right to their front door it’s kicked right out. So what choice do they have but to fight back? Drastic measures end up being taken in one case because the father makes him give up his dream and take away everything he knows and loves. The rest of the Poets realize their mistake. There needs to be the balance of freedom/carpe diem and law. Without that balance, a normal society would not be able to function. 

I commend those young men for being so outrageous and courageous in their decisions but I also condemn them for their actions. Growing up in such a educational society such as this, you would think that students might understand the delicate balance of freedom and law. I think the problem here is that with the system shoving the law down their throats and strangling their freedom, the boys begin to desperately crave the freedom that has been suffocating for so long. 

Robin Williams’ character stretched their minds and distorted their views of the world that they had grown up in. His intentions weren’t to encourage them to rebel or create havoc, but to inspire them. He took all the rules of the classroom and flipped it completely upside down. I wonder how often this should happen in real life to schools like this. Or churches like this. How often do we as Christians focus on the law that God gives us instead of enjoying another gift: freedom? Too often we force ourselves into boxes to contain our natural instincts. We put ourselves into metropolises filled with man-made beauties of metal that literally scrape the sky so that we have to crane our necks to even get a glimpse of the whole thing. When right next to us, on our own level, there is something so beautiful and complex that we don’t even recognize it. 

Human nature is a beautiful creation that has become tainted in so many ways that it can be hard to recognize in it’s truest form. Simple communication between each other has gotten so confusing that we can’t understand our own families decisions and actions. Communication is so much more than words spoken from one person to the other. It is more connection than actual communication. Through poetry these men finally discovered what it meant to communicate through connection and action.