Dead_Poets_Society死亡诗社

Bacwenku.baidu.comground Information
• American schools highly value the full realization of one‘s potential. They lay emphasis on personal development including basic skills education, understanding of basic processes, intellectual development, critical thinking (to evaluate ideas) and creative thinking (to generate ideas), recreational and aesthetic interests, emotional and physical well-being, and most importantly, character formation. 2. Team Spirit • American education also intends to foster the learner‘s commitment to the country, the neighborhood and the family. Patriotism is taught as the cardinal principle. Interpersonal skills are cultivated to enhance human cooperation and appreciation.
Synopsis
• • • • • • •
trigonometry 三角学 hormone 激素 invincible 无敌的 fertilize 施肥 daffodil 水仙 weird 怪异的 spooky 令人毛骨悚然的
Synopsis
Questions • How do you like the way most courses are taught? • How does the new English teacher impress you when he shows up for his first class? • What does he tell the students that they may call him if they feel daring? • Did Mr. Keating go to Welton? • What does ―carpe diem‖ mean? • Why does Mr. Keating have the boys take a close look at the pictures?
• • • •
Introduction
• Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting. He has also won two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globes, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and five Grammy Awards.
Synopsis
• Welton Academy is founded on tradition and excellence and is bent on providing strict structured lessons prescribed by the realist, anti-youth administration. With the dawning of each new semester, hundreds of parents abandon their sons, leaving them in the tried hands of Welton staff in hopes that they will raise doctors and lawyers.
Background Information
• The Goals of American Education
• Since Dead Poets Society is a movie set on campus, a glimpse into American education will definitely enable us to keep track of certain Western cultural notions. American education is an indispensible part of the American Dream. Not only does it determine the individual‘s social status and economic prospects, but it also brings general social benefits such as elimination of poverty and improvement of citizenship. Two of the most prominent features of American educational goals are: 1. Self-actualization
Background Information
• Prep School
• A university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for higher education. Some schools will also include a junior or elementary school. • Prep schools are selective, academically challenging, and largely independent of state and local control. The student-to-teacher ratio is comparatively low, hence, smaller class sizes than in public schools. Some admit students of only one sex; others are co-educational. • Prep schools often place a strong emphasis on sports.
Introduction
Dead Poets Society is a 1989 American drama film distributed by Touchstone Pictures. Written by Tom Schulman, it is a coming-of-age movie about boys at a conservative and aristocratic prep school, Welton Academy, in Vermont in 1959. With the inspiration of their new English teacher, played by Robin Williams, the boys revive a society, dedicated to poetry. In this society, however, the boys help foster freethinking and a certain kind of bravery. Won: Best Original Screenplay (Tom Schulman) Nominated: Best Actor in a Leading Role Nominated: Director (Peter Weir) Nominated: Best Picture
Synopsis
• Why does Mr. Keating instruct his pupils to rip the introduction out of their books? • It is ridiculous to prescribe a mathematical formula to rate the quality of poetry. • What does he want the students to learn in his class? Why? • To think for themselves; to savor words and language. Because words and ideas can change the world. • Why do we read and write poetry? • Because we are human and human race is filled with passion. • What do we stay alive for according to Mr. Keating? • Poetry, beauty, romance and love.
Synopsis
• • • • • • • Neil Perry Todd Anderson Knox Overstreet Charlie Dalton Richard Cameron Steven Meeks Gerard Pitts
Synopsis
Questions • What is the school ethos defined by the headmaster Gale Nolan? And what is the boys‘ interpretation of the four pillars? • ―Tradition, Honor, Discipline and Excellence‖. • “Travesty, Horror, Decadence, and Excrement”. • What is Todd‘s problem? • Todd is painfully shy and this is particularly disturbing to him since he is repeatedly told that he has ―big shoes to fill‖ being the younger brother of a former valedictorian. • What do you think of Neil‘s father? • Overbearing and controlling.
Introduction
Introduction
Background Information
• Social Background
• Dead Poets Society was shot in 1989, an economically depressed period of America after the collapse of the stock market of 1987. It was also the time the atmosphere of Cold War was going to melt. So the theme ―seize the day (carpe diem)‖ is quite understandable. The story in the movie happened in 1959. The McCarthyism which was popular in the 1950s was coming to an end, and the individualism was drawing near in the 1960s. Therefore the shooting time and the time of the story had similar social needs: a spiritual release.