Today I’m gonna tell you about a suicide that gave me a literal creep. Justifying a suicide was never my thing but this time I just couldn’t resist. Many of the readers already know what I’m going to tell, but my writing is for those who didn’t discover the character that shook me to the bones yet. So without any further due let the story begin.....
Neil Perry was his name. Neil was a student of Welton Academy, a strictly disciplined academic institution which only preferred excellence in every activity.
His father, Mr. Perry is one of the teachers of this very institute and also a very strict parent. He dominated Neil like a brutal king in his every other activity. He prioritized education over everything, for example he orders Neil to drop his editor position from the school magazine as he believes it’ll hamper his education. Then John Keating enters the scene as the new English teacher of Welton. He motivated his student to “seize the day” and live the life like no one because he didn’t want them suffer as a victim of the monstrous mechanical society they live in. Neil literally took Keating’s words by heart and decided to gain control of his life. He found his inner passion through acting. He auditioned for a play named "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and got the part of character Puck. He agreed to do the part and finally felt that he is driving the wheels now. But one day before audition Mr. Perry came to Neil ordering him to stop for his next day’s act. Though he agreed to his father about not going to the play, he acted in the play. Mr. Perry caught him at the play and decided to send off Neil to a military school. Neil couldn’t take the fact that all his life his father was controlling his life to make him a trophy that he can show to the society as his achievement. And so consuming the spirit of “Puck” and seizing the day, he commits suicide.
I used to brand suicide as a cowardly act whenever I heard about it, mostly because of its lack of reasons. But even I had to concede that there were enough reasons for Neil as he was a victim to the oppressive education system which is only for achievers, not for humans. But when he understood the fact, it was too late for him. Then we find a society where achievement defines family respect. His father wanted him to go to Ivy League and then the medical school, he feared that Neil won’t fulfill his dreams and for that he became an iron-fisted parent. We can find similarities in our society too. After passing many exams with higher grades, one must be prepared to be an engineer, doctor or a lawyer. If one can’t do that, he will just be a loser to the society. This stigma makes a student slave of a brutal system that Neil feared of. The main tragedies of Neil Perry’s life were he became a slave of the oppressive education system and a loser to the society in his parent’s eyes as he decided to be an actor in future. And as a tragic finale he ends his life to be free from the hell where he always lived in.
After discovering “Neil Perry” I must say I’ll question myself even for once if suicide was the only way for the fallen one before branding him as a coward.

_____________
P.S: Neil Perry is a tragic character from the film “Dead Poet Society (1989)” directed by Peter Weir. “Neil Perry” was portrayed by an American actor named Robert Sean Leonard. If one want to feel what I went through, please do yourself a favor and watch the film ASAP.