At lunch, McAllister asks Mr. Keating about the page-ripping he walked in on earlier that day. He expresses concern that if Mr. Keating is encouraging the students to be artists, they will only resent him for it later if they don’t succeed. Mr. Keating assures McAllister that he is not intending to make artists of the boys, but instead individualists. McAllister is puzzled by this but is ultimately charmed by Mr. Keating and drops the subject.

On the other end of the dining hall, Neil approaches the table where his classmates are sitting. In his arms, he carries an old school annual he found, one that is from Mr. Keating’s senior year at Welton. Under his picture, they find an unusual title: Dead Poets Society. They seek out Mr. Keating after lunch and ask him what the Dead Poets Society is. Mr. Keating tells them that “The Dead Poets was a society dedicated to sucking the marrow out of life. That phrase is by Thoreau and was invoked at every meeting” (46). Mr. Keating and his friends would go up to an old cave by night and take turns reading poetry, both those from great literary figures and those they wrote themselves.