American Literature and Composition
Dead Poets Society and Transcendentalism
For this assignment, you will be writing a formal essay (typed, double-spaced,
well edited, etc.) where you take a position on the following question:
Are the ideas behind Transcendentalism inherently dangerous?
In your essay, you will write about this question using several different sources to
support your argument. You must use the movie and at least two other sources
from the list below. Whether or not you think these ideas are dangerous, your
essay should come to some kind of a conclusion about the effects of following
transcendentalist ideas. What happens when we “suck the marrow out of life” or
live self-reliantly? Are there benefits or costs to being civilly disobedient or
celebrating ourselves? These questions – or others – are what you will explore in
your essay.
Romantic and Transcendentalist Writings to Consider:
“The Road Not Taken”
“A Psalm of Life”
“O Me! O Life!”
“Self-Reliance”
“O Captain, My Captain!”
“Civil Disobedience”
“Walden”
Catcher in the Rye
You can organize your paper in any way you see fit. It is important that you
recognize the complexity of the argument. That is, one side is not completely
right or absolutely wrong. There is nuance here, so try to deal with that in a
complex and sophisticated way.
Important Dates:
Tuesday-Thursday, December 18-20: Watch movie, begin formulating opinion
Friday, December 21: Map out a plan, work on rough draft (in library lab)
Monday January 7: Rough draft due (these should be typed, double-spaced,12 size
font, at least two pages) (15 points) LIBRARY LAB WILL BE OPEN ON
MONDAY, 1/7 FROM 7am-8:35 SO NO EXCUSES ABOUT PRINTERS AND
HOME COMPUTERS!
Monday January 14: Final Draft due (50 points!)
American Literature and Composition
Characters from Dead Poet’s Society
Take notes to help you keep track of them!
Todd Anderson
Neil Perry
Charlie Dalton
Knox Overstreet
Richard Cameron
Mr. John Keating
Chris Noel