Dead Poets Society Post

The Dead Poets Society is a movie that emphasizes the importance of following your heart, and your own individual beliefs and ideas. This transcendentalist idea is shown throughout many aspects of the movie. At Welton Academy prep school, the students are taught to live life in a very conformist way; tradition is emphasized. All of the teachers look and act the same, with the same values and principles emphasized from classroom to classroom. The students are given almost no room for creative thinking, or originality, and striving to be different isn’t a concept that any of the teachers taught. Only when a new English teacher comes to the school are the students finally able to experience a new way of looking at life. John Keating is a teacher who is different from all the others; he doesn’t look or act like any of the others, and he doesn’t even have the students call him by name. Instead, he allows them to call him Captain, from a line of a Walt Whitman poem that he showed the students his first day that said, “O Captain, My Captain!”

One of the very first lessons Keating gives focuses on “carpe diem”, which means “seize the day” in Latin. Carpe diem is a very transcendental idea, as it focuses on living each day to the fullest, without putting faith in the future or doubting one's actions and beliefs. Another lesson was when he took the students outside and had three boys walk in a circle behind each other. Though they all started out walking at their own rhythm and pace, before long, they all walked the same way. Soon after that, all of the other students began clapping to the rhythm of their footsteps. Keating did this in order to show that people have a tendency to follow the crowd, even if it isn’t the way they actually want to do things. This idea is also very much related to transcendentalism, as it shows the importance of individuality, and evading society’s influence. Mr. Keating also told some boys about the group he was in during high school, called the Dead Poets Society. They would go down to a cave, light a fire, and write and read poetry. The boys in the group decided to make their own Dead Poets Society, which is transcendentalist because despite the fact that they were not allowed to sneak out at night, they did anyway, because poetry was a passion of theirs, and they heard it helped to “woo women”, as Keating said.

This Is Who I Am

One entire day of just being me. One day of showing everyone exactly who I am on the inside. Who I see myself as. Whether it's admitting to everyone that I'm a huge Potterhead, or expressing shamelessly that I am an Atheist. It was difficult, but entirely worth it.

The day began with dread. I walked to school with my jacket on. As I came through the doors to the school, I saw Mr. Provenzano in his shirt. The only thing I could make out from where I was standing was "iNerd!", but that was all I needed to see. With a smile on my face, and a sudden boost of confidence, I walked straight to my locker, hung up my coat, and grabbed my books for first hour.

The rest of the day went by smoothly. I would call it a normal day, only it wasn't that. Everyone else acted normally, with only a few people here and there asking about the shirt, and stopping to read the back. But the main difference in the day was the way I felt. I felt happy, free, and excited to be showing my true personality. Although - throughout the day - I came up with about a thousand things that I'd left off my shirt that would have been important in showing who I am, I was still happy with what the shirt portrayed. It was a great day, and I'm really thankful that I participated in the assignment.

At the end of the day, it felt as though a huge burden was lifted off my chest. Hopefully people will no longer see me as the girl who's shy, walking through the halls silently, without any apparent personality. I put "insecure" on my shirt, but I don't think I feel that way any more. After a day of being everything that I ever thought I was, and stills seeing how people accepted me for that person, I know that there's no need to hide that side of me any more. There's no need to hide that part of myself, or be insecure about it. Whether or not anyone actually paid attention and read my shirt doesn't matter. What matters is that I was able to put myself out there in a way that helped me understand that I should be proud of who I am, no matter who that person is.

FRONT ^

[Note: Some of the letters came off when I washed it, so I re-drew them on in black. The colors used to be rainbow.]

BACK^

Modern Day Transcendentalist

Transcendentalism is a concept which has no real definition. It is an idea that people should be who they are, and not let society influence their decisions or actions. It isn’t necessarily true that transcendentalists are only people who are eccentric and not afraid to show it. They can be even the most normal-seeming person, who just isn’t afraid to express their true opinions and be who they truly are, without letting anything hold them back. The smallest decisions in life can be connected to transcendental ideas, and in modern society, I think Selena Gomez does just that.

Being a celebrity, Selena Gomez is aware that almost all of her life is made completely public, and all of her decisions will most likely be judged and analyzed by the press, by fans, and by haters. So each decision, no matter how small, will impact the impression the public has of her. Nonetheless, she seems to act like such a normal, typical teenage girl; at least, as normal as a famous actress and singer can get.

Selena Gomez has been dating Justin Bieber, a very well-known celebrity, for several months. She most likely knew, prior to her decision to go out with him, that she would get ridiculed by press and fans alike. Not only is she two years older than him, but he is a celebrity with a very narrow fan base, and he is often thought of as a joke. Despite knowing that the public may view her differently once her decision to date Justin Bieber went public, she went out with him anyway. This is a very transcendental idea; she did what she wanted to do despite what other people might think.

The way you dress, especially when you’re always in the view of the public eye, tells a lot about you. People will take one look at a person and judge them, even if they don’t know anything about them. Selena Gomez has her own line of clothes that show her unique style, and portray the kind of person she is. She doesn’t limit herself to the clothes and the styles that are “in” or popular, just because they might give the public a better impression of her. For example, when she went to Paris Hilton’s all-blue party, most people just wore blue clothing, but Selena Gomez went all out. She wore blue sparkles, blue lipstick, blue eyeliner, and even a blue feather headband. She didn’t care that other people might judge her for going over-the-top; she just did it because she wanted to, and it was who she was.

One of Selena Gomez’s most popular songs is “Who Says”. This song portrays many ideas that reflect transcendentalism, because it is about finding who you truly are, and not letting anyone tell you that you can’t reach your dreams and goals in life. This is one of my personal favorite songs, because the lyrics are so heartfelt and personal. “I’m sure you’ve got some things you’d like to change about yourself, but when it comes to me, I wouldn’t want to be anybody else,” are among the lyrics in the song.

Walden Post

            Time is never wasted so long as experiences are being made that will be remembered forever. Henry David Thoreau spent two years, two months, and two days of his life alone in a cabin by Waldon Pond. During that time, he documented his thoughts, feelings, and realizations about nature and mankind's role in the world. He discovered a true passion for the earth, the animals, and for music, and developed ideas that are the forefront of today's "green" movement. Thoreau did not waste two years of his life at Waldon Pond because he created a manuscropt that would inspire people for decades to come, and showed brilliant ideas that were way ahead of his time.

            Thoreau became very interested in the lives of various wild animals during the time he spent at Waldon Pond. He was able to get an entirely new perspective on the world by experiencing the rawness of nature, before the progress of men altered it. "I was not only nearer to some of those which commonly frequent the garden and the orchagrd, but to those wilder and more thrilling songsters of the forest with never, or rarely, serenade a villager," (Thoreau 488). During this thought, Henry David Thoreau is explaining that he was able to experience animals in nature, birds in this case, that most people go through life without ever seeing. He is saying that not only could he view more slosely the life of well-known birds, but many types of species that are nearly brand new to the human eye. This rarity shows the amazing experience Thoreau had during those two years of his life, which were most definitely not wasted.

            Nature itself played a huge rold in helping Thoreau discover his ideas about the world's importance and the destruction of progress. His green ideas resulted in his amazement with nature's beauty. The simplistic celestial of the unexplored world was held very near to his heart, and he found that the world is it lies before humans destroy it is beautiful. "I discovered that my house actually had its site in such a withdrawn, but forever new and unprofaned, part of the universe," (Thoreau 489). This idea of the forever new that Thoreau mentions is describing the ineptness of nature before it is altered by humans. He is saying that he believes people should appreciate the world as it is, rather than destroying nature with the desire for progress.

Henry David Thoreau dedicated over two years of his life toward finding the true wonders of the nature in the world. His discoveries were written down to create a work that consist of the same ideas that many environmentalists have today. His ideas were far ahead of his time, and he was able to influence the world. His time spend at Waldon Pond was not wasted, because he was able to experience things that many people go through their lives without coming close to. He saw sides of nature that many people never will, and he witnessed animals that most people will never see. Thoreau was a brilliant man who is far ahead of his time, and who was able to spend two years, two months, and two days of his life accomplishing the writing of one of the most quoted manuscripts in history.