Political Essay, Research Paper

A Separate Piece/Dead Poets Essay Both stories, A Separate Piece and Dead Poets Society, have at least three major characters. Each of which are similar and different. The three main characters in A Separate Piece are Gene, Phineas, and Brinker with his relationship with his dad. The three main characters in Dead Poets Society are Todd, Neal, and Neal s relationship with his dad. The similarities between Gene and Todd are a lot alike. One example is that in the beginning Gene was shy and so was Todd. They both needed a source of inspiration to help them be heard and make them more outspoken. For Gene it was Finny, for Todd it was Mr. Keating. Both helped them realize something inside that made them become more outspoken. Another example is that they are both basically followers. Gene followed Finny till he died and became more independent and Todd followed Neal till Neal committed suicide his desk for Mr. Keating. Another comparison was between Phineas and Neal. They were the strongest characters of all, with the most importance. They both were the leaders, they set the pace. Neal started The Dead Poets Society, Finny started The Super Suicide Society. Another comparison was that they were both very loyal to their friends, Gene and Todd. The most important comparison is that of loyalty. In order for Gene and Todd to become independent both Finny and Neal had to die. When Finny died Gene started to become more and more independent. When Neal committed suicide Todd started to speak more freely for Mr. Keating and for his beliefs. For instance when Todd stands up and yells, “O captain, my captain” and everybody else follows him. The third similarity is between Brinker s relationship with his dad and Neal s relationship with his dad. Brinker s dad was basically like an army general in a way that he was making him go to war no matter who he was going to war with. He wasn t happy when Brinker said he was joining the Coast Guard. Neal s dad planned his whole life for him without even consulting Neal s thoughts and dreams, which eventually lead him to suicide. His dad also made him quit the play, that Neal lived for and earned the main role in. Neal played the part anyway and got caught so his father made him so mentally unstable, that he ended his own life. The differences between these characters are more abundant than the similarities. The main reasons for difference were that of A Separate Piece, being a book, and Dead Poets Society, being a movie. The main differences between Finny and Neal were that of Finny being very athletic. Throughout the story Finny is related to sports in a major way. Like that was one of the reasons why it lead Gene to go crazy, and he kept his love for sports alive even when he was injured by helping Gene train for the 44 Olympics. In the film, Neal was an actor. He had a passion for acting as Finny did for sports but acting and sports are complete opposites, except for Wrestling. Finny dealt with the story a lot except he wasn t the main character. Neal on the other hand was the main character in the story. Another difference between the two is that Finny got hurt and that s how he died but Neal was just driven to his death by his father. The comparison between Gene and Todd aren t as abundant though. Like in the book Gene was the main character in the story just because he was the narrator telling the story as a flashback. Also in the story Gene basically worshipped Finny. He even refers to Finny as a God at one point in the story. But in the movie Todd is basically a man that just wants to graduate so he can become successful like his brother, but Neal just helps him along the way. The last comparison is between all the characters in general. I thought that as the movie went along, me referring to the book while the movie was going on, that none of the characters were alike, the exceptions were of course Gene, Finny, Neal, and Todd. They all had totally different situations to deal with so it was hard to compare other minor characters. Overall the movie, Dead Poets Society, and the story, A Separate Piece, differentiated in more ways than the compared. If the plot of the movie was that of the story then the comparisons would have been better. There were a lot of similarities that I could compare in detail to, but then again there were a lot of differences that I could compare in more broadly related terms. Overall it was an excellent movie with a not so excellent book.

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