“Do I dare disturb the universe?”(97) is a question that comes up in both The Chocolate War and the Dead Poets Society. The question comes up whenever the subject of conformity does. Not conforming can be good sometimes, but most of the time there are ramifications for non-conformity. Both the movie and book illustrate this point.
The book, The Chocolate War and the movie, Dead Poets Society take place in a different place and time. Dead Poets Society takes place twenty years before The Chocolate War does. Welton Academy is a boarding school that takes place away from a city. Trinity High School is a private school, but is in a city. A similarity would be that both of the schools are catholic.
There is more pressure put on the boys that go to Welton, however. The parents and teachers expect more from the students than those that go to Trinity. The parents intend for their children to become what the parents want them to become. Behavior in Trinity is worse than the behavior in Welton. In Trinity there are The Vigils. The Dead Poet Society that is made by the group of boys at Welton really isn't as harmful as The Vigils. The Vigils run the school, makes the students do things that they don't want to do. The Dead Poets Society is just a group of kids reading poetry to each other, nothing that dictates how the rest of the school acts.
The main focus at Welton is schoolwork. At Trinity, the students try to get away from all of the schoolwork. Archie has The Vigils, Jerry has football, and Goober has running. At Welton there were study groups. That wouldn't be seen at Trinity. At Welton the students on the first day of school are getting lectured on how the school year is going to be and what is expected from the students. Then at Mr. Keating's class they leave the classroom to look at the trophy case and the students are surprised. Then Mr. Keating says “Carpe diem”. Later on the class when Mr. Keating tells the students to rip out the page in the textbook, the students don't do it at first. They are so surprised at the different method of teaching. Keating is trying to show the students that there is more to life than schoolwork and doing what your parents want you to do and that you have to capitalize on the opportunities that come your way.
The chocolate sale in The Chocolate War and the teachers and parents in Dead Poets Society put a lot of pressure on the characters. In both stories the parents do not really get involved with their children and listen to what the children want to do. Jerry's father doesn't get involved with much of anything that Jerry does and stays to himself and his job. Todd's parents don't pay attention to him that much. This is seen when Todd gets the same desk set for his birthday two years in a row. “Keating, you stay away from my son”. Neil's father says this after Neil performs in the play. Neil's father thinks that Keating is a bad influence and that he made Neil act. This drives Neil to do the worse thing possible, suicide, when his father enrolls him into military school.
The Chocolate War shows the ramifications of non-conformity. “My name is Jerry Renault and I'm not going to sell the chocolates.”(129). Jerry gets hurt because of this, for not conforming with the rest of the Trinity community, for not selling chocolates. After the fight at the end of the book between Jerry and Emile, “He had to tell Goober… to do whatever they wanted you to do.”(187) Jerry is suggesting no to disturb the universe, just follow what everyone else is doing and what everyone else wants you to do.
Dead Poets Society is promoting non-conformity. Mr. Keating shows this in his first day as a teacher when he pulls the students out of the classroom, “Carpe. Carpe diem. Seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.” This was the beginning of the students expressing them selves. The recreation of the Dead Poets Society, Dalton speaking out to Mr. Nolan about letting women in Welton, Neil acting, Knox going and trying to get the girl, and most of all Todd, who was able to pull enough courage together to speak out for what he believes in. “Oh captain, My captain,” said by Todd while standing on his desk after Mr. Keating gets fired. Soon all of the other students who believe that Keating was good for them follow Todd. For Mr. Keating this shows himself that he made an impact on these kids and that it was a positive one.
The author of The Chocolate War, Robert Cormier and the writer of Dead Poets Society put the different messages across through their stories in a successful way. Cormier shows that the good guy doesn't always win and he stuck behind his message the whole entire book. He could have easily had the story turn away either having Archie pull a black marble out of the box or even having the fight go Jerry's way, but he didn't. He stuck with what he believed in, and it was successful. The writer of Dead Poets Society is also successful in the way that he puts his message across even though it is different than Cormier's. The message is that not conforming can be good. It is shown in the final scene with Todd standing up for Mr. Keating. The movie shows how much of an impact one person can have on others.
Conformity is a big subject to think about and can go a couple of different ways. Both the Dead Poets Society and The Chocolate War touch upon this issue showing different outcomes.
