Authority is the power or right to give orders, make decisions and enforce obedience. This is a theme which is continually challenged by protagonists in the film, The dead poets society, directed by Peter Weir, and the novel Raw, written by Scott Monk, through the use of Film and Language techniques. This idea was continually conveyed through the actions of the main protagonists in both texts, and progressively reveals the corresponding consequences, and their impacts to the individual.The film, the dead poets society, directed by Peter Weir, is set in 1959, at Welton academy, which is an elite preparatory school which bases its ethics, morals and teachings on tradition, honour, discipline and excellence. Neil Perry is the main protagonist in the film, who is a shy, artistic and highly educated student of Welton Academy, but has his future controlled by his dominant father, with his future set.
Neil had accepted this path until he meets a new teacher, John Keating who tells him, and his classmates to live the moral of “carpe diem” which means “cease the day”, which changed his friends perspective of life, and his own.In Mr Keating’s second class, Neil is told to read aloud the section of understanding poetry from his English text book, while doing so, Weir makes the use of a panoramic shot, to show the faces of the students, with their bland expressions, showing the level of interest each student has on the agenda. Once Neil finishes reading the section, all the students are told to rip out the entire introduction, as he believes that poetry cannot simply be measured with a graph, and the students do so willingly.His scene shows a break of the traditional curriculum taught to the students of Welton, by Mr Keating. Due to the new perspective of the world, Neil sees his passion of acting as a viable future and wants to participate in a play, but his dominant father, Mr Perry will not allow this, so he goes behind his father’s back and forges a note of permission to participate, given to Mr Keating and does so anyway, giving a noteworthy performance, but disappointing and aggravating his father in the process.
Later that night after arriving home, it is decided that Neil will be enrolled into a military school, for his disobedience towards his parents and his ignorance towards what his parents have done to make him go to such a highly regarded institution. Neil, being desperate to speak out about his true feelings, but failing to do so, believed that he would rather live his life freely or not at all, so he chose to take his own life.Raw is a novel written by Scott Monk, which is set on a farm located near Mungindi and Moree. Brett Dalton is the main protagonist in this novel, who is a 16 year old boy that is sentenced to three months on a rehabilitation centre(which turns out to be a farm), for committing the crimes of breaking and entering and theft.
