Death Leads to Matuarity

Death Leads To Matuarity

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 ““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. Gene was Finny’’s best friend, however a silent rivalry develops between them. Gene’’s jealousy towards Finny’’s fame and talent makes him push Finny out of the tree and down the stairs causing Finny to die eventually. Neil’’s death helps the rest of Keating’’s students to realize that they should stand up for them and fight for their freedom. In the same way, Finny’’s death makes Gene grow up to become a mature person. Yet both Keating and Finny are the victims while trying to change the society for the better.

Gene Forrester of A Separate Peace and Charlie Dalton of Dead Poets Society are both selfish, 16 year old teenagers who have low self esteem and always mistreat others to hide their emotions. Gene Forrester is a quiet, intellectual student who is plagued by the darker forces of human nature. However, Charlie Dalton thrives on the attention he receives from other people. He thinks that he is ““above the law,”” and, in a sense, has a ““God-complex”” characteristic. He feels that he should always be in control of the situation and that he should not have to face the consequences of any of his actions. Gene Forrester is a coward and a cold-hearted person who depends on Finny although he pushes his best friend Finny off the tree because Finny is a better athlete. On the other hand, Charlie Dalton is very loyal by helping Mr. Keating from getting expelled. Both Gene Forrester and Charlie Dalton have similar characteristics such as that they both want to act as the justice for others.

Neil Perry of Dead Poets Society and Gene Forrester of A Separate Peace are alike in many aspects but different in some of their behaviours. Neil is sixteen years old who is being pressured by his father to become a doctor, where as Gene is putting pressure on himself by thinking that his best friend is trying to distract him from studying. Neil and Gene both have negative and positive sides to them. They are both smart in school and they respect their friends very much. Also, both of them are cowards and dishonest. Gene is afraid to tell Finny that he pushed him off the tree. Gene lies to his classmates that he didn’’t push Finny off the tree. Neil doesn’’t have the courage to tell his father about the play in which he wants be a part of. On the other hand, Neil lies to Mr.Keating that he had already told his father about the play. Even though both Neil and Gene