Therefore, this paper aims at making a clear demonstration and analysis of the progress made by students under the traditional mode of education, delving into the impact of Mr. Keating by applying his creative education strategy. In contemporary society, educational problems still exist in many countries of the world. Violence, crimes, conflicts and even terrorism, induced by prejudice and oppression of students’ inpiduality, still happen occasionally. Traditional family education and personal characteristics also attribute to the root of education problems. So the study of this theme is still meaningful in both China and America, even in the whole world.
This thesis is pided into six parts. The introduction briefly introduces the production background of Dead Poets Society, a brief description of its purpose and significance as well. The second part is literature review, focusing on the current researches at home and abroad. The third and fourth parts aim to describe students’ improvement and present some reasons. The fifth part explores the negative impact of traditional school education and family education on the teenagers, and puts forward some reasonable suggestions. Finally,it is the natural conclusion part.
2.Literature Review
In the previous studies, some scholars and critics have do many researches on educational problems reflected in Dead Poets Society. Scholars at home and abroad also have done some researches from different aspects, but there is still some rooms for improvement. Studies are summarized from two perspectives.
2.1 Literature Review at Home 源[自*优尔^`论\文'网·www.youerw.com/
In China, many scholars have made some achievements on the study of Dead Poets Society. Xin Tao translated Dead Poets Society into Chinese in 2011. Around 2011, many critics analyzed the novel from the perspective of education and published their journals in the fields of movies literature (Xin Tao, 20ll). First of all, from the perspective of education, the novel is about “freedom and Compliance”, “inpiduals and authority”, and “romance and reality”. Through these, Wang Jianxiang interprets John Keating’s education ideas, education content, and teaching methods. At the same time, he discusses how the quality of teachers might influence their students (Wang Jianxiang, 2011 (1): 150-152) . Another critic Niu Xiao thinks that emotional education is a part of the educational process. He suggests that in this novel, the teacher adopts emotional education in teaching poetry and has succeeded in spurring the motivation and interests of the students while helping the students understand poetry. Therefore, teachers should change the traditional methods of English teaching (Niu Xiao,2010(1):57-58). Secondly, a lot of scholars published their papers in the field of the movie appreciation. Characters in this novel break the tradition and ignite their passion. In the process, the students have to face the contradiction between reality and romance. This shows the novel could bring a profound meaning to human life. Additionally, Qiu Xiaomei has discussed the symbolism in Dead Poets Society (Qiu Xiaomei, 2009(10):139); Xie Nini uses psychoanalysis to analyze the novel from a specific angle(Xie Nini, 2011 (3): 110-112, 115); Yu Hongqin, thinks the characters in this movie possess many features of post-modernism, whose features are non-central, openness, pluralism, tolerance and infinite resistance(Yu Hongqin, 2008 (14): 77-78). On the basis of former studies, a lot of scholars in China analyze this novel, in which readers can find the theme of this novel has brought to them and have different interpretations of Dead Poets Society. Moreover,Peng Guosheng mainly analyzes the phenomenon of youth suicide under great pressure from school, family and society, like Neil in the novel(Peng Guoqing, 2008: 44-48). Lu Jun, Wang Dan and Wang Lan point out that under the traditional education and training, it results in the students’ psychological of utilitarianism. Perhaps they may realize their dreams. However, at the same time, these students gradually lose creativity, rebellion, vitality and the essence of life. The authors focus on the problems of traditional education reflected on students and sing highly of the creative strategy of John Keating(Lu Jun,Wang Dan and Wang Lan,2008(07):51-53. Some other critics,Wang Xiaoqiong pays more attention to the progress made by students with John Keating’s encouragement(Wang Xiaoqiong, 2014(03):115-118).