Adolescence is a vital transitional point in life where character must be built, taking in influences, making decisions, and forming elements that will prepare a person to start living their life as an adult. This universal theme of adolescence runs true and vital in the film Dead Poets Society (1989). The movie follows a cohort of students in the highly prestigious, academic boarding school, Welton Academy. The academy, dedicated to shaping the future leaders of the country, builds their school in accordance to the four pillars representing their ideologies: tradition, honor, discipline and excellence. Neil Perry, a bright, charismatic and naturally gifted student excels in this school, getting good grades and being a popular leader figure among his peers. As a teenager, Neil's personal construction of himself and his own identity was naturally affected by the influence of others, especially those he saw as authoritative figures, and simultaneously subject to his own increasing sense of self-awareness and aspirations in life. Neil was harshly pressured by his overbearing father, greatly inspired by his English teacher, Mr. Keating, and strongly admired among his peers. All influences, outer and inner, contribute in a different way to Neil's character. .
Neil Perry's father contributed to his son's perception of himself in ways that mostly manifested itself in his son's moments of inferiority. Neil was a confident, assertive student who is only seen acting otherwise when he is in his father's presence. At the very beginning of the narrative, Neil's father comes into his dorm room to tell him to drop an extracurricular activity because it did not benefit the career path he wanted Neil to pursue. Neil falters under his father's bullying and gives in. What this scene demonstrates is Neil's usual self-assurance being knocked down by a parental figure that he has grown up under his whole life.