“Neil is not a martyr! His religion was self centered. His
death was absolutely needless!”
I believe that Neil was a martyr. His religion was not self centered, and though his death may have been needless, it wasn’t without true reasoning in his heart. I believe that his “religion” ie Romanticism, was a true cause to fight for – the only thing that his parents, school (with the exception of Mr Keating) and society expected of him was to be a doctor, not for the fact that it saved lives, but for the prestige the job carried. Neil was flying the flag for imagination and inspiration in a world taken over by realism and pessimism, a world unable to see past a person’s salary.

“A true saint accepts the Christ like example. What was completely lacking was humility, true suffering (waiting until he graduates from HS and than doing what he is called to do)”
As for being a saint, you have to consider the fact that he wasn’t one. He was a teenager. And for him to submit to carrying on in the education his father picked out for him – ten years in military school – wouldn’t be humility and true suffering in the name of his “religion”, it would have been surrender. Surely it is better to live for what you believe in – no matter how short that life may be – than to just go with the flow. Yes, that may have been “true suffering”, but the fact still remains that Neil probably wasn’t thinking of his martyrdom when he killed himself. He probably thought that it was either suicide or military school, because there was no way that he could have found the courage to stand up to his father. It was one extreme or the other – another Romantic idea, I think.

“He took the easy way out.”
Please. The easy way would have been submission – it always is.

“Instead of enduring a bit of momentary suffering (not acting) he gave up his life and forfeited his real destiny.”
Because, obviously, acting cannot be a true destiny for someone. It is only a true form of art, of expression. It is only a way by which individuals can travel to distant places and different times, learn how to empathise with people and gain a view of humanity that is unfettered by the restraints of a normal life. Momentary suffering is not the issue here – the fact remains that ACTING is a way of life, it is a calling, and not everyone can do it. For the first time in his life, Neil had found his vocation and was (literally) acting upon it – he was carving his own future and he was in full control. Why would he relinquish this because it is what’s expected? That would have been senseless.

“To take on the suffering of not acting, to accept this with all humility and patience would have made him a great artist, and a saint.”
He didn’t want to be an great artist and a saint. He wanted to be himself, something which he would never have acheived if he had gone through military school – that would have broken him. It seems that people have the impression that Neil was a Jesus-like character of endurance and strength, but he was only human.

“He put on the Crown of Thorns, but without the Agony in the Garden, the Scourging, Carrying his Cross, and the bitter passion.”
Jesus went through the Agony in the Garden, the Scourging, carrying His Cross, and the bitter passion for A BELIEF NOT SHARED BY THE SOCIETY IN WHICH HE LIVED. Of course he didn’t kill himself – he was the Son of God, he had Divine Guidance, and finally, it isn’t necessarily something which everybody believes in. Maybe Neil didn’t.

Maybe we should entertain the idea that Neil, for all his virtues, was just an ordinary teenager seeking nothing except to “suck all the marrow out of life.”

Apologies for ranting