Dead poets society door N.H. Kleinbaum

Title

Dead Poets Society

Publisher

Bantam Books

Year

1989

Number of pages

166

Main idea

The main idea of the story is how close minded people were, just a few decades ago. The students at Welton attend an elite college, were only the best can go, yet they are not allowed to think for themselves, nor make their own decisions. It's either the teacher who decides, or the father, but never the boys themselves.
And then, when finally, they have a teacher that encourages them to live their own life, those other people destroy all of the joy they get from it.

Setting

The story plays in the year 1959, the 100th anniversary of Welton Academy.
I don't think they mention the country or town in the book.

Characters

John Keating is the new teacher at Welton. He replaces the old English teacher, who retired. Keating is a very open minded person who believes that, on the contrary of what the other people at Welton say, young boys, can think for themselves.
In his class he encourages the boys to show at least a little criticism to what others say. He tells the boys to read poetry in the way they want to read and judge it, not the way others say it should be read and judged.
Sadly, the other people at Welton don't agree on his opinion, and that will result in a sad ending of the story.

Opinion

I really liked the book, honestly. I had seen the movie too, but the book adds yet another dimension to the already quite excellent movie.
The book explains things in a much clearer way, with alot of detail, which you don't have in the movie. Also, the poetry becomes much nicer, clearer, if it's read in English. Yes, I would certainly say it is a good book.

Summary

The book is about 6 friends, Neil Perry, Todd Anderson, Richard Cameron, Knox Overstreet, Charlie Dalton and Steven Meeks. They attend Welton Academy in the year 1959.
For English, they have the new teacher, John Keating, who is a very different teacher than the others. He encourages people to think for themselves.
When Neil goes to find some information about Keating, he discovers that Keating had been a member of a group called "Dead Poets Society".
They ask Keating about this, and discover that it was a secret society, who read poetry for eachother, and lived free, as they thought they should live, even though the teachers at "Helton" said differently.
The friends decide to restart this society, and so they do.
But after a while, things start going wrong. Neil has decided to act in a play, and his father does not agree. Yet Neil goes along with the play, but his father finds out, and gets very angry. Neil commits suicide the next night.
An investigation is started at Welton, and it is decided that Keating was the cause of this event, and the boys are forced to sign a paper that puts all the blame on Keating, who has to resign after this.
Yet, the boys stay loyal to Keating, as they prove when he leaves, by saying sorry...