An Analysis of Destructive Clandestine Groups in "A Separate Peace" and "Dead Poets' Society"

Both John Knowles's A Separate Peace (1959) and the 1989 film Dead Poets' Society center their conflicts around the devastating harms that lack of emotional restraint and self-destructive leanings bring about. This is partially demonstrated in the purposes behind the clandestine societies in both works.

In both stories there exist clandestine organizations such as the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session and the Dead Poets' Society, which were means of escape for the participants from the regulations of their superiors, acting also in a manner which permitted and glorified self-destructive acts.

In A Separate Peace, the tree was branded as "off-limits" for the students at Devon, and jumping from the tree was ordinarily a severe breach of regulations (which only Finny could undergo unpunished). It was, even in Finny's case, neither encouraged nor looked kindly upon. Therefore the society would meet during twilight hours, away from the watchful eyes of the adults in the school.

The cave near Welton in Dead Poets' Society is also forbidden territory, and students were not even permitted to depart from school grounds during the night. Once the Dead Poets' Society's existence became known to the schoolmasters through Charlie Dalton's article, severe penalties were imposed on Dalton, and warnings given to the other participants. The society itself was effectively disabled as a result, capable of existing only clandestinely.