Michael S. Seiferth
Department of English
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English 1302
Analysis of a Central Scene in Peter Weir's
Deat Poets Society
The Topic
The central scene in terms on Todd Anderson's growth and development in Dead Poets Society occurs when Mr. Keating "directs" Todd's reaction to the portrait of Walt Whitman under which Keating had written, "I sound my barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world." In this scene, "Sweaty-Toothed Madman," Todd learns something which he will apply during the final scene of the film. In effect, Todd begins his journey not unlike Holden Caulfield, unarmed against a sea of tradition, parental control, and institutional indifference.
In your analysis and synthesis Todd's journey.discuss how Peter Weir develops Todd's character in terms of the action of the film. Different from an analysis of a short story or a novel, the director is using a visual medium, and imagery in scenes which "frame" the action of the story, especially those which show, for example, lyrical celebration--the soccer game in the orange and red sunlit landscape with Beethoven's Symphony Number 9, the Fourth Movement--present the emotional and archetypal meanings without the use of the written or spoken word.
The Scene Alluded to, Above
In fine, your paper needs to combine your knowledge of the Romantic journey which you used to develop Holden Caulfield's movement in The Catcher in the Rye along with the basic elements of visual technique Weir employs in developing Todd's movememt from relative unawarness through his baptism, so to speak, in the scene for analysis, and, ultimately, to the final scene of the film.
General Considerations
1. Please be sure to write from a comprehensive THESIS, that is, an idea with movement, which becomes the central, informing idea of your paper. In some cases a good thesis answers the questions, "What is the director doing?" "How is the director doing it?" and "Why is the director doing it?". Most papers develop the "HOW?" answer most carefully and thoroughly.
2. In order for your paper to become more coherent, you'll need to use transitions--connecting one section of the paper to the other. At certain, critical points in the paper, ask the question, "Where have I been, and where am I going?" The answer to this question provides the transition. You might also find it helpful to use transitions between paragraphs, "Now that we have seen the development of the novel, let's look at some of the characters." Finally, transitions often work well even between sentences, but here they serve to keep the idea moving: "In addition," "further," "on the other hand," "thus," "moreover," etc.
3. As Aristotle tells us about drama, "All plays have a beginning, and middle, and an end," so must your papers, i.e., and introduction, and development, and a conclusion. The introduction contains the single, most important sentence in your paper, i.e., the thesis. The development section is the proof of the idea and is often a full reflection of the movement and the concept in the paper. Cause and effect, illustration, and definition become the "movement" and give shape to the idea. The conclusion offers your reader a summary of your most salient points and has a special shape of its own. The introduction is deductive while the conclusion is inductive.
4. Documentation is central to this work, and you'll need to study the MLA Documentation in order to see the scholarly format of citations and notes. In dealing with a film, of course, documentation becomes more specialized, and your use of the MLA Documentation Online becomes essential here. This site also reviews documentation and other writerly applications and skills
5. Again, you need to use the writing process, i.e., the pre-writing, the shaping, the various drafts, and the final, edited version of the paper. This all should be submitted along with the final, edited version.
6. Even though we think that we "catch" many errors with the technology built into various computer programs--spell-check, grammar, etc.--I have noticed that these programs are not written for literary or learned papers. In short, these tools can't identify problems peculiar to the kinds of papers you are writing. In short, you will have to have your papers proof-read by someone who has not made the errors, for if you made the mistake, how can you really find it? Please be sure that your work is free from major errors in syntax, diction, sentence accuracy, agreement (verb, subject, pronouns).
7. The quality of any argument--what your are going to prove--depends on the quality of the evidence you submit for consideration. In many cases, direct quotations from the key texts supplies the proof of your evaluative statements.
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