The Theme Of Societal Pressure In Dead Poet's Society

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Intro -
After viewing a number of texts, one major theme that connects all of these together is shown through the theme of societal pressure. Growing up in such a judgemental world, we all get judged on the things we do, the clothes we wear, the way we look and the place we originate from. These aspects all blend into societal pressure and create many difficulties for some teenagers growing up in this society. The texts, Try by Colbie Caillat, Thrift Shop by Macklemore, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and Dead Poet’s Society by Peter Weir, all incorporate different ways to overcome or fight societal pressure, foreshadowing some sort of advice to the viewer or listener. This allows them to think about their actions and construct a unique …show more content…

We are introduced to one of the major characters, Neil Perry, who is studying to become a doctor. Later in the film, Neil picks up a strong passion for acting, but his father is strongly against it. He acquires a leading part in a local play and acts without his father’s permission. Even though Neil does extremely well in the play and gets a standing ovation, his father angrily drags him home to discipline him by sending him to military school, to study for an additional ten years. Neil is disheartened by this decision and continuously fails to speak up for himself, or in other words ‘seize the day’. That night, he made the decision that his life is too difficult and ended it by shooting himself with his father’s gun. From the audience’s perspective, we can see that Neil really doesn’t want to become a doctor. He fail’s to speak up to his father about the issue and doesn’t want to be the failure of the family, so he takes the easy way out. This is becoming a big issue in today’s society, because many teenagers face difficult decisions when choosing their career path and sometimes forced to do something they don’t like. For Neil, he is placed under a lot of pressure to make his family proud, but he is not happy about being forced to do something he

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