Have you ever been under surveillance for 24 hours a day? Well in the Truman Show, the main character Truman was in this exact position, where he was trapped in a dome without knowing and was in the public eye. This might sound familiar to you that is, because Plato’s allegory of the cave involved a prisoner being chained within a cave facing a rocky wall, and only able to see shadows with a fire pit as a source of light. This essay will be comparing and contrasting both Plato’s cave allegory and The Truman show due to their overlapping ideas. The setting, the character’s perception of their situation and the symbolism within both the show and theory will be analyzed for differences and similarities. Plato’s key perception in the Allegory …show more content…
of the Cave is that there is more to reality than the human eye views.
In the beginning of the story there are a few prisoners in a cave locked up in chains facing a rocky wall in complete darkness. The prisoners are not able to turn around to see what is behind them. Throughout their lives, the only view the prisoners have is the shadows lurking in front of them from the steamy fire set behind them. One of the prisoners is unrestrained from the cave and finally realizes what reality is and how it is portrayed outside the cave. The prisoner has been living in the cave all his life never knowing what the outside world looks like. After witnessing the outside world, the escaped prisoner was astonished at what reality actually looks like. He knew if he was to return back into the cave and tell the others that there is more to the cave than just shadows, they wouldn’t believe him. Similarly, in the movie The Truman Show, Truman Burbank only perceived reality of what was around him, not knowing that his life was a T.V. show aired for millions of people around the globe. …show more content…
Truman’s world was perfect, he had a beautiful wife, the dream job, and everything he ever wanted. It is like what Plato has said there are two worlds. One world is normal where we live in and the other world is perfect like utopia and that is the world Truman was a part of. Truman lived in a dome called Seahaven where his perception to life was scripted. The world was a part of everything Truman was doing from his first Christmas to his first job. The show was a huge susses due to the director who controlled everything and everyone. The director decided who he would marry and who would be his friends. In both The allegory of the Cave and the Truman Show both the characters were in a controlled environment. Furthermore, both characters are being criticized and called delusional while in fact their vision of reality is true.
In the Truman Show, Truman saw a girl he liked and thought was beautiful. When they met in the library Silvia told Truman that it was not safe to talk and wrote on the paper that everyone is watching. Truman had no idea what Silvia was saying at that time. When they went to the beach Sylvia revealed to him that everything is fake and scripted and no one in his life can be trusted. From that moment Truman viewed the way he lived very differently. He stated to see a trend on a daily basis. For example, when Truman sat in the car with his wife and looked at the rear mirror he noticed the same people moving in the same direction every day. When Truman confronted his wife about what was happening, his wife Meryl would tell him he was crazy and that he was imagining things. While Truman was following a cast member into a building he saw the backstage of the show when the elevator opened. The cast lied to him saying that they were renovating and that there was nothing to worry about. Since the Truman Show was a success globally, the cast and director didn’t want him to suspect anything was going on. Every time Truman brought up travelling and adventures they would shut it down by having the ones he loved say something to him. One way the director made sure Truman would not travel was by making him scared of water. By doing this, they made his actor father drown in
water. While Truman watching and being unable to do anything it made him traumatized of water. Since they were in a dome the water only goes so far until you hit the end, and having Truman go on a boat and reach the end point will ruin everything. Even though Truman didn’t go near water it didn’t stop him from trying to leave Seahaven. Truman wanted to travel by plain to Fiji or Chicago. Just like the last time the production cast sent his best friend from grade eight Marlon to talk to him. Marlon would make him believe that there is no better place than Seahaven. Every time Truman wanted to go somewhere, there were curveballs along the way. First there were no tickets till the end of the month to go to Fiji and then the bus engine broke down just when Truman sat on the bus when he wanted to go to Chicago. Whenever Truman felt suspicious and thought something was wrong the cast would lie to him or tell him he was crazy and that he should see a doctor. Likewise, in the Allegory in the Cave, the prisoner that saw what was beyond the cave was threatened to be killed for making false accusations and telling the other prisoners what reality actually looks like. When the escaped prisoner got out of the cave, he then realized that what was portrayed on the rocky wall they were facing was unreal. He saw how trees and plants actually looks like weather then the shadow that was being ejected to them from the hot fire. After seeing what life offered outside the dark cave, the prisoner did not want to go back to the way his life was before. He knew after seeing what he has seen it would be difficult to cope with his old life. Once the prisoner was placed back in to the cave he visually explained what was outside the cave and that this is not how reality looks like, but the other way around. All the prisoners though he was crazy and did not believe him for one second. The prisoner tried hard to believe that everything was his imagination and that the other prisoners are telling the truth, but he couldn’t. He knew what he saw was not an imagination, but the way you should see and live life. Even though more than one individual could tell others that what they believe and what they see is delusional or insane, they will never understand or believe anything the way you experience it. Moreover, even though there are more than one similarities between The Truman Show and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, there are some differences between the two. Like Plato has said there are two worlds. One world is normal and the other is perfect. The settings where everything takes place in both the novel and the movie are different. Truman was raised up to have everything he desired in return for Truman being the main lead character in the show, which he was not aware of. Nothing Truman received was difficult for him to achieve. He had the beautiful wife, the car, the house and the dream job that his best friend continuously tells him. The weather was always gorgeous and the sunset and clouds were always perfect every night. Truman never knew how it was like outside of Seahaven though. He always wanted to travel, but was never able to. Truman was stranded and held captured inside the dome without knowing. Truman has not once questioned the way he lived life, until he met Sylvia who is an actor on the show. While Truman’s life is all perfect and enchanting, the prisoner’s life is the complete opposite. In contrast, in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, the prisoners are in a cave that has no source of light except the burning fire that is behind them. All the prisoners are facing a rocky wall while being chained and not having the ability to turn around. The only thing they see are shadows from the fire. The setting where the prisoner was held, was not as nearly as nice where Truman was. Even though Truman left Seahaven, he will never be able to feel that way of luxury again. Whereas the prisoner would do anything to feel the luxury he felt outside of the cave. In conclusion, Plato’s cave allegory and The Truman show both overlap and differ when a close analysis of the symbolism, setting and the character’s point of view within these two works are examined. In Plato’s cave allegory the setting is in a dark cave where the only source of light is the fire behind them, with shadows appearing on the blank wall the prisoners are facing. Whereas, in The Truman show the setting was in Seahaven where Truman was in a perfect world, presenting the differences between the show and the theory. Moreover, In the Truman show, Truman is trapped in a dome which symbolizes Plato’s allegory because, the prisoner was also stuck in a cave. Finally, both the prisoner and Truman were criticized and called delusional when they would tell someone what they believed or thought. Ultimately this leaves us to question our own reality, how do we know that what we are experiencing is actually real and not in someone else’s hands? That is something we may never find out.
Plato’s cave had chained prisoners and that was the only life they ever knew. They couldn’t move their heads, and the only objects they could see from the outside world were the casted shadows created by the fire. They saw the truth from the shadows, but they were distorted. What they were seeing was only one side of the truth, not the whole thing. When one of the prisoners was free to go, he was forced to be dragged out of the cave. It
Plato's Allegory of a Cave, Wachowski's Matrix, and Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time
One of the most important elements in Richard Wright’s The Man Who Lived Underground is Wright’s careful use of sensory descriptions, imagery, and light to depict Fred Daniels’ experiences both above and below ground. Wright’s uses these depictions of Fred Daniels underground world to create incomplete pictures of the experiences he has and of the people he encounters. These half-images fuel the idea that The Man Who Lived Underground is a dark and twisted allusion to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.
The person in the cave is taken out and put into the world. The brightness of the sun is blinding to his eyes causing him to be blind to the “realities”
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” explains his beliefs on education of one’s soul and the core of the way they shape themselves. The rhetorical devices that Plato represents inside of his story explains how much freedom is worth in this world. The deeper meaning inside of what Plato describes can further be found out once a reader realizes the type of rhetorical devices are being used. For example, Plato portrays prisoners being locked inside of a cave without a way out. These prisoners never got to see the outside world, yet he mentions they “see shadows” which explains they are only able to catch a glimpse of reality from the outside. Plato’s use of imagery gives us a mental picture on the tease we may feel to notice reality but not be able to experience it. In reality, we do not value freedom as much as we are supposed to. We seem to not see the world as he sees it. With the help of personification, Plato uses human like characteristics to describe non-living things to give
Plato’s, Allegory of The Cave, is a dialogue between his teacher, Socrates, and his brother, Glaucon, where Socrates dissects what is required to have a good life. During this dialogue Socrates illustrates a scenario where humans grow up in cave deep in the ground, strapped down like prisoners so that they can only face the wall front of them. On this wall there are shadows being casted
What is truly real, and what is not? This question is one which has been pondered deeply throughout human history, and it seemingly has no definitive answer. To understand what is truly a part of reality, and what isn’t, may be an impossible feat. However, two famous works created by humans from two distant time periods attempt to dissect and analyze this philosophical question. The first, The Allegory of the Cave, was written by the great Greek philosopher, Plato, who was born in 428 B.C. in Athens, Greece. The Allegory of the Cave is a piece of a larger work of Plato’s, The Republic, which is a collection of works concerning political philosophy. The Republic is his most famous work and what he is best known for in today’s world. The second
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is the pinnacle of philosophy, many future philosophers based their own philosophies from Plato’s Allegory. A simple Allegory questioning truth and reality has also shaped current pop culture. The past shapes the future, it is surreal knowing how a single man from the past with his love for wisdom influenced modern films. The Allegory is a simple story that makes people question their truth and their morals in which they live by. The Allegory tells a story of a prisoner who has escaped the “fake” reality and has seen “truth”; the informed prisoner attempts to return to his fake world to enlighten other prisoners of their ignorance. This same plot concept can be seen in the movie The Truman Show.
In the contemporary world , culture refers to something as vast as the distinctive way of life of an entire community. Culture is everywhere and everyone has it; it is the mass of ideas, traditions, habits, stories, beliefs, and perspectives on life passed on to us from generation to generation through literature, language, art, myth, religion, family, and various other social institutions. Plato had many different ideas when it comes to human behavior and philosophy. Some of those things can be applied to today’s society, some of them can’t. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which is probably his most famous theory, as well as Krishnamurti’s essay on cultural conditioning of a mind, they both focus on cultural values and living within a culture and can still be seen in today’s society.
Inside the cave the only knowledge that you can experience is the knowledge that is already installed into your head. In the cave viewpoint “The truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the image.”(Plato 450) M This quote explains that everything that is viewed in the cave is only a shadow of the real thing. But, the outside of the cave is made up of real images that can be hurtful “He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world” (Plato 451). This quote explains how humans need to adjust to new knowledge. At first, the outside of the cave is defined as unreal, because you are in denial that there is more to the world than just your cave. When one realizes the actual things that are present outside the cave one will want to spread the word and tell the other prisoners. But, one will not spread the word because the other prisoners will not be open to the knowledge. They will see your viewpoint as being insane do to the fact that they have not been exposed to the
The Truman Show has several comparisons to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Truman’s home, Seahaven, represents the prisoner’s cave and the water becomes Truman’s chains. The actors that play as Truman’s friends and family represent the shadows that appear on the wall. After attempting to leave, Truman spends a long time sitting in his car observing the world and eventually predicts what will occur, just as the men in the cave predict what will appear on the wall next. In the Allegory, the prisoner had to be dragged out kicking and screaming because he was comfortable with the lie. Christoph says the same thing about Truman as Plato says about the man; he is comfortable with his false reality. Plato stated that once knowledge is gained, no one
Because Truman was being manipulated for most of his life, he had never experienced true freedom. For example, Christof could never allow him to leave the island of Seahaven because if he did he would discover the truth and ruin the TV show. The writers of the show tried to nip Truman’s enthusiasm for travel in the bud such as when he announced to the class that he wanted to be an explorer when he grew up. The teacher immediately told him that he was too late for everything had already been discovered. A few years later, something more drastic was called for and they decided to write Truman’s father out of The Truman Show in a boating a...
In life, the world one lives in seems to be the reality, without people questioning its credibility. As Iris Murdoch once said, “[People] live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.”(Iris Murdoch Quotes). In The Allegory of the Cave by Plato, prisoners are trapped in a cave and chained to face a wall and only see shadows of objects that pass behind. However, one prisoner is released and forced out into the reality, allowing the reader to understand that the world one sees and experiences is not the reality, but rather an illusion. Similarly, in The Truman Show by Andrew Niccol, Truman Bank is living in Seahaven Island, a place created for a television show that is all about Truman. Throughout the
One of the major differences between the film and the novel is the depiction of the delusional image of reality. However, it still manages to bring forth the dystopian image of both their Utopian societies. In The Truman Show, life is a real life play in an environment that provides comfortable lifestyle and happiness at the cost of reality. The producer of The Truman Show, Christof states, “We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented”. This message is the underlying theme in the story and as such, will foreshadow Truman’s acceptance of a delusional reality in the film. Meanwhile, in the film everyone except for Truman is acting and not living an authentic life. There is no sense of “real”; no real affinity, no secrecy, and no faith, all of which Truman is blindly unawar...
This allows him to have an easier time accepting the truth because it was not someone else telling him the unthinkable. One day he creates the image that he fell asleep while being in the basement. The producers realize it and everyone goes on a search for him. In actuality, he is on a boat sailing off the island of Seahaven. He is trying to break the chains of the cave and search for his true love and his father. In order to prevent him from discovering the truth the producer creates a violent storm in the set, hoping to shake Truman enough for him to turn around. You can see in the viewer’s eyes the concern they have for him as they cheer him on but also their sense of realization that the show is going to be over. Truman declares he will not give up and continues to sail on into the sea until he runs into a wall. The fact that he ran into a wall validates his theory that his life was not real and allows him to reconcile with his