Compare And Contrast Dead Poets Society And A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace and Dead Poets Society Compare/Contrast Essay

Stories told in different formats are often not much alike. However, sometimes without even planning it, books and movies on different subjects can be very similar. The book A Separate Peace and the movie Dead Poets’ Society both have many more similarities and differences that compares and contrasts the movie and the book.

In the book and movie, there are a lot of subjects that you can compare them on. One subject they compare on is how there is a group of boys that go to a strict boarding school and all of the main characters are best friends. The boys were jealous of each other a lot in both the book and the movie. Gene was jealous of how Phineas always got away with everything and how he could do anything he wanted. Gene says, “ I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal” (25). This shows where Gene’s jealousy starts with Finny and later on the jealousy takes over him and he does something unthinkable. In the movie, there is jealousy too because I could tell that Neil Perry was jealous of all of his friends. They could do they wanted and not have a parent controlling their every move. This upset Neil because he did not want to be a doctor like his parents wanted him to. He wanted to act, write, and just be a kid. The book

and movie compare to each other by both the main characters being jealous of something, but they contrast because of the things they are jealous of. In the book Gene is jealous of Finny for always getting what he wants and being athletic. Neil is just jealous of everyone who has freedom of their own choices and soon the pain is too much for him to handle.
Another way they compare is how in both the book and movie they play a game. They both play a game that has to do with a ball. All the boys are involved in it and think it is a lot of fun. I know that this comparison probably wasn’t planned while making the movie, but somehow they both had games that was used with a ball that all the main characters played it. The differences are the people who came up with the game play different roles and the way the game is played. In the game blitzball, Finny makes the entire thing up as he goes. It was a surprise to everyone and when Gene went back after many years, there was still a form of the game being played then. In blitzball, the person who has the medicine ball is the opponent of every other person who is playing the game. When you have the ball everyone else in the game, is trying to tackle you. If you have the ball and would like to pass it to another player, you can and then everyone tries to tackle the new person with the ball. If a person refuses to take the ball then the opponents still try and tackle the person who has it. The game kept going on and on so there would be no real winner. Gene says, “ In such a nonstop game he also had the natural advantage of a flow of energy which I never saw interrupted. I never saw him tired, never really winded, never overcharged and never restless” (39). This shows how perfectly set up this game was made for Finny and how he can do anything and never really get tired. Finny is a very athletic person who can do anything he sets his mind to. In Dead Poets’ Society, Mr. Keating gives all the boys a piece of paper and the all line up in a single-file line. They read the poetry that is on the piece of paper and they are not allowed to be shy or quiet while reading it. Then they kick the ball as hard as they can while Mr. Keating starts playing music. I think both of these games show the importance of having fun and coming together as a group and as friends. These games are alike but very different as well.
The last comparison is how The Separate Piece and Dead Poets’ Society both have clubs and organizations that were started. Both were started by the kids in the book and they came up with the ideas all on their own. In the Separate Peace, Finny and Gene come up with the club name “Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session”. Finny creates the idea that to be in this club, you have to climb up a tree and jump into the water the a limb is hanging over. After you are in the club, one of the main rules is how the meeting is initiated by jumping off of the tree. Gene says, “Rigid, I began climbing the rungs, slightly reassured by having Finny right behind me” (31). This shows how panicked Gene is about climbing and jumping off of the tree, but Finny on the other hand, is not scared even a little. His attitude towards this is how much fun it is and how much he loves it. The club ends up being a big success from the start and a lot of people joined in on it every night. Super Suicide Society club contrasts with the Dead Poets’ Society Club because of how different they really are. In the club Dead Poets’ Society the have to sneak a]out past curfew and they go to the woods. They go in some sort of underground cave and initiate the meeting my reading poetry. The boys got the idea to have this club because of Mr. Keating. Mr. Keating used to be a member of this club when he was at Welton Boarding School. The boys involvement of the club and the lessons taught by Mr. Keating, encourage the boys to live their life the way they want to. This has helped Neil pursue his love of acting and get the lead role in the play Midsummer Night’s Dream. It helped Todd Anderson to come out of his shell, and it also helped Knox go after the girl of his dreams. Both the clubs in these books helped you start to make decisions for yourself and become closer to your friends. These clubs both lead to a death of a main character in the book and in the movie. In a Separate Peace, the climbing of the tree and jumping off is how Finny broke his leg which later on, lead to his death. In Dead Poets’ Society, the meetings showed the boys how to be themselves, do what they want to do, and not listen to anyone else. This lead to Neil’s father being upset with him, almost making him to go boarding, and then Neil killing himself. Both stories have clubs that compare to each other, but they are completely different in how the clubs are managed, controlled, and what they do in the clubs.
In conclusion, A Separate Peace and Dead Poets’ Society, compare and contrast to each other in many ways.

The jealousy between the boys is both the same but there are differences as well. The games that they played are both played by all the main characters, and with a ball, but the way that played the game was different. Finally, both stories had clubs that the boys participated in, but what they did in the clubs were different from each other. A Separate Peace and Dead Poets’ Society were alike and different in many ways without meaning too even with the loss of the boy’s best

friends.