The road less travelled

「Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by.」 ——The road not taken by Robert Frost
Dead Poets Society is a drama film directed by Peter Weir and starring Robin 威廉斯. It was critically acclaimed and was nominated for many awards. It is a movie showing the conflict between tradition and anti-tradition, reality and dream. It seems to be an old topic, but this movie brings me a lot of new thinking. We should know what we really want and strive for it. Maybe you yield at last but at least you have lived.
The story set at Welton Academy in the USA which is a very conservative school, where the students are forced to abide by the school tradition and discipline just like Chinese students. Although the school has a good reputation, the students regard the school as a hell. They are under their parents』 expectations and have to put aside their own dreams and follow the most normal way—entering the most famous preparatory school and work hard to enter a famous university. However, Mr. Keating, a new teacher, comes to the school and inspires the students through his teaching of poetry.
In my opinion, the movie includes two topics, one is whether you know what you really want; the other is whether you choose to strive for it.
Actually not everyone knows what he or she really wants. In the movie, when one of the students Neil finds he is crazy about acting, he says,」 The first time in my whole life, I know what I want to do and for the first time, I gonna to do it.」 His extreme happiness makes me realize when someone finds 「what is really inside him」, he is willing to devote his whole heart and soul to do it no matter how difficult it is. I believe to find what is inside us is a must. Thoreau said, 「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.」 The movie tells us to seize the day, to be unique and to be passionate so that we can find where our dreams lie in. In the first class, Mr. Keating tells his students to 「Carpe Diem」 because the longer you wait to begin to find your own voice; the less likely you are to find it. To make the students be unique, Mr. Keating has the students stand on the desk in order to look at the world in a different way——consider what you think not what others think you should. Besides, as young men, the students are inspired to be passionate rather than 「leading lives of quiet desperation」. When Keating explains what the nature of poems is, he said, 「We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion.」
The other topic of the movie is whether we should strive for what we want. Different people have different choice in the movie. Neil Perry, an outstanding and charismatic student, wants to be an actor but his father forbids him to and he chooses death to hold his belief. Different from Neil, Todd is a timid boy who dares not to express himself. He loves writing but his parents want him to be a lawyer. We do not know whether he gives in, but when he stands on the desk and shouts,」O captain, my captain」, we can see the changes that Mr. Keating brings to this introvert boy. Another boy called Cameron betrays his fellows and yields at last. He persuades the other members of Dead Poets Society to give in by saying 「you cannot save Mr. Keating, but you can save yourself.」 Apart from that, at the end of the movie, there is a detail that when Mr. Keating is about to leave, not everyone in the class stand on the desks as Todd. This detail tells us not everyone is brave enough to go against the traditions. We cannot judge who is right and who is wrong. To strive for what you want or yield to the reality, it depends on you because we have to lose something such as job (for example, Mr. Keating was fired at last), family (Mr. Keating has to leave his family to teach at Welton Academy) or even life (Neil chooses death to hold his belief) on the way to pursue our goals and not everyone can bear the loss of these things. However, once you choose to strive for your dream, you should face the difficulty in maintaining your own beliefs that different from others, just as Mr. Keating said, 「You don't have to perform. Just make it for yourself. Swim against the stream.」
In a conclusion, find what is inside us is the first step to enjoy our life, and after that you choose to strive it or not. Once you step on the road of your dream, do not care about it is a road less travelled.