Death Leads To Maturity :: essays research papers

In the entire life cycle of a human being, teenage stage is the fun, memorable, and some time the wild part. In this teenage stage, the teenagers experiment with everything without caring about the consequences. For most people, the life prior to the teenage stage is the most exciting part because there are no worries; every thing is fun. When the teenage life begins, most of their behaviours change while adapting to various habits. They follow good and bad behaviours as the result of influences from their parents, friends, teachers and the society they live in. These behaviours and societal norms combined with enthusiastic nature makes teenagers do various things. The result of their activities gives them the basic knowledge of the real world. Dead Poets Society, by N.H. Kleinbaum, and A Separate Peace, John Knowles, are two novels that focus on the difficult journey towards maturity and the adult world of the teenage boys. They focus on the learning experience of friendship and self esteem through the death of others. Both John Keating and Finny (Phineas) are great leaders who face many difficulties in achieving their goal and often become the victims. Dead Poets Society opens with Keating being a substitute teacher for an English class and encouraging his students to make their lives meaningful and extraordinary by referring to the word â€Å"Carpe Diem† (25). This is the Latin word for seize the Day and he wants them to seek out their dreams and to believe in themselves. Keating believes that education requires the student to think for himself. He must be free to question and to learn in the way that he learns best. A Separate Peace opens with Finny being portrayed as a brave sixteen years old boy who strongly believes in and encourages other students in his class to act upon their wishes. Both characters are optimistic about making a change in other people’s lives to make them better. Keating encourages the students to write poems to express their feelings. Finny on the other hand, encourages his friends to skip classes and do wild things like jumping off the tree. Neil, one of Keating’s students, follows his wishes and disobeys his father. At the end, Neil kills himself when his father decides to take him out of school. Yet Keating is blamed for Neil’s death and is expelled from his position. The persistent theme of A Separate Peace is the fall of a complex friendship.