Dead Poets Society

3 Pages 760 Words

Carpe Diem vs. The Four Pillars
Excellence, honor, tradition, and discipline: these were the four pillars that students of Welton Academy were to live by and strive for; Mr. Keating’s philosophy of Carpe Diem seems to contradict all four of these pillars. Mr. Nolan would certainly argue that Mr. Keating teaching the boys to “walk their own way” was a direct assault on the four pillars that he upheld. Mr. Nolan truly did uphold the four pillars to the death; however, it was not his own. I believe that Carpe Diem was Mr. Keating’s way of teaching excellence, honor, tradition and discipline.
Mr. Keating held the boys to the pillar of excellence every day in his classroom and outside of it. One example of this was his aggressive strategy towards Todd Anderson, who was incredibly shy and afraid of speaking in front of his peers, so much so that this honor student failed to complete an assignment that required him to write and then read aloud an original poem. Mr. Keating recognized this as being a failure based in fear not laziness. As a result of his desire to hold all of the students to the standard of excellence, Mr. Keating did not let Todd simply take a failing grade in the class but instead forced him to recognize a talent inside himself. Mr. Keating forced Todd to the front of the class and then instructed him to give a “Barbaric Yawp”, when Todd did so meekly Mr. Keating goaded him into giving a truly “Barbaric Yawp.” Mr. Keating still was not satisfied and further pushed Todd toward excellence by forcing him to compose impromptu in front of the class. Todd did so and the result was truly excellent.
The second pillar of honor was shown to be important to Mr. Keating by his insistence that every student honor themselves, their abilities, and their responsibility to contribute to society beyond what they would be “when they grow up.” He also showed his desire to teach the boys the v...