"I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep, and suck out all the marrow of life. To put to rout all that was not life, and not, when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived." -Henry David Thoreau, as quoted in Dead Poets Society

The themes in Dead Poets Society are about life, death, passion, "Carpe Diem" (seize the day), and "sucking out the marrow of life." Now, I'm not a poet, but when I heard those words the first time I watched Dead Poets Society, I honestly didn't even bat an eye at what they meant. It actually wasn't until the death of Robin Williams that I went back to re-watch the movie for the first time in a decade. It was then that those words started to stir something within me.

I didn't just want to live life... I wanted to live. I wanted to be proactive... I wanted to live deliberately & with purpose. To "suck out all the marrow of life".

What does it mean to "suck out all the marrow of life"? Thoreau is talking about fully immersing yourself in every moment and to even do mundane activities with your full attention. To be completely devoted to and involved in those moments. It also refers to pulling the marrow out of bones, which is where all the flavor resides - the bone marrow is what is extracted from the bones and is dissolved when we make stock.

We take beef bones, and boil them, thereby sucking the richness out of them, and into the water. That stock can later be used to flavor other foods. Just like the life we live to the fullest can flavor the lives of all of our friends around us. Sucking the marrow of life is essentially taking that flavor of life, enriching your own with it, along with those around you.

Hinami offers to help Tomozaki learn all of the tricks to win at the "game of life." Tomozaki feels he is a "bottom-tier character," and unable to succeed in the unfair game of life where the rules don't make sense. Life, he feels, is imperfect, and is not worthy of his time and effort. Hinami sets goals for him so that he can live deliberately. With goals, one has a path, and with a path, one has direction. We see Tomozaki go back and forth, learning more, taking more in, and learning to seize the day by completing those goals.

Tomozaki discovers more about himself, and realizes that he wants to be an active participant in life, but not by wearing masks to hide in each situation that Hinami has taught him to use. By the end of the season, Tomozaki has started to see what it means to live with "true desire"; to "suck out all the marrow of life," and to make sure that you live deeply with no regrets.