sound your babaric yawp!

************這篇影評可能有雷************

很久很久之前寫的文。。。某選修課作業，篇幅有限，每個點都淺嘗輒止。

「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 again…」

It was the very poem that was read at the beginning of every gathering of the Dead Poets Society. The members of the society were a group of students from a respective preparatory school with conservative institution. 「Tradition, Discipline, Honor, Excellence」 was what they used to follow. Most of them were promising, obedient, and hardworking students, sharing the same goal: prepare themselves for universities, especially the Ivy League. However, somehow, their life and thought changed a lot, when they met their new English teacher, Mr. Keating. Inspired by him, who inculcate them with the idea of Carpe Diem (the Latin term for 「Seize the day」), these students were aware of their own voices, and they struggled to go against the status quo to follow their dreams and sound their barbaric yawp deep inside!

The film has a strong linguistic feature. As a poetry teacher, Keating always quoted beautiful and passionate poems, like 「O, me! O, life!」 His words are quite formal in addressing himself to the students. This is the case with 「We read and write poetry not only because it’s cute, but because we』re members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion.」 And as a romantic teacher, Keating directly criticizes the introduction to the poetry book 「excrement」 without hesitation. These words perfectly demonstrate Keating’s personality as frank, passionate and wise. As for the boys, disgraceful words were used to show their rebel to the school authority. For example, they changed their school motto into 「Travesty, Horror, Decadence, Excrement.」 Proper expressions drew us near to the soul of these characters.

Mr. Keating was an interesting and extraordinary teacher. He told his students to call him 「 O, captain! My Captain!」, if they were daring. In his class, students could stand on the desks to see from other perspective, rip out the dogmatic introduction to a poetry book, and even go out of the classroom to 「live deep and suck the morrow of life」. His romantic and unorthodox teaching methods awakened the boys to the beauty in poetry and life. But, young people tended to go to extremes. Keating knew that would lead them to regret, so he tried to warn them of the consequences. For example, Keating made it crystal clear that he didn』t approve of Charlie’s rebel by claiming, 「sucking the morrow doesn』t mean choking one the hone」. What’s more, he attempted to encourage Neil to speak out his love for acting to his overbearing father.

 However, some of his students failed to realize Keating’s intention. This was the case with Neil. Neil was a boy always obedient to his father’s wishes, but he never was honest about his passion for acting to his father. In fact, he was acting for his lifetime, to his father, to Keating and even to himself. His tragedy, to some extent, resulted from the lack of communication with his father. Neil was afraid of confiding his dilemma to his father, while his father took it for granted that what he did was the best for his son. Thus, the malicious circle made both of them have no chance to mend the rift.

His death was such a shock to everyone that it made a stir in the school. And the Dead Poets Society was separated into two groups: one on the side of Romanticism considered Neil’s father responsible for Neil’s death, while the other for Realism regarded Keating as the scapegoat. But, suicide is a personal choice. Only Neil himself can decide to be or not to be, as a result, only Neil can assume the responsibility of his life. I was so sad about such a handsome young man’s death. So was his roommate, Todd. With his face sickly pale, Todd madly ran into the snow and sounded a barbaric yawp to release his deep grief. From the moment on, he had grown up from a shy and self-abased boy to a brave young man! At the last scene, when Keating had to collect his belongs in the classroom, it was Todd who initialed to stand on the desk and called him 「 O, captain! My captain!」 to show his loyalty. My tears flooded not only due to Todd’s bravery, but also because I saw that Neil had lived in Todd.

We all live in a world full of regulations. Following the rules unconditionally secures a safe life, however, at the cost of one’s one own identity. Dead Poets Society reminds us to seize the day and lead an extraordinary life. Under the overwhelming rules and regulations, we must have our own way of thinking, or no idea will be stirred and no soul can take wing. Opportunities await us out of nowhere, if you take the chance. But, tradition and discipline, still essential to build a balanced life, provide us with sense of acceptance from others. We have to learn to release our passion and compromise a little to the reality. The process of growing up is to strike the balance in between.

Let’s climb every mountain ahead of us. Let’s dance to the tune in our hearts despite the shackle on our feet. Let’s sound a barbaric yawp over the roof of the world!