An allegory is a kind of a story in which the things that are happening are compared to something else that is similar and unstated.”The Matrix”, dated back to 1999, is a film by the Wachowski brothers that adapts a number of new and olden philosophies about the truth behind reality. However the most important part to the framework of the movie is adapted from the Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. These two films tend to reveal the truth on the ongoing question about what reality is and the question whether we are living in the real world or an illusion of the world? In the Matrix, Neo, the main character is held in a false sense of reality created by machine software while in the Plato’s Allegory of the Cave; a slave is used as the main character and is presented as being able to comprehend the reality of the cave both inside and outside.
These stories shares some similarities and the main similarity is truth acceptance about themselves that freed prisoner and
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neo must face. They should accept truth prior to acquiring deeper knowledge on the truthful fundamentals. To acquire this knowledge, both the Neo and freed prisoner need to have experience of the demonstration which is shocking that the sense are insufficient and they can also be deceived systematically (Milford 18). They both shares same story about senses epistemological unreliability and need of abstracting from se senses with aim of gaining a genuine knowledge. Also these two stories share the fact that what controls the worlds are greater power. For instance, Neo lives in world that is under control of matrix while prisoner Plato lives in cave or world that is controlled by form holders. Both stories since they know the world and also come to know what really the world is they all manages to escape. Neo later comes to realize he has been leading life none other than slavery life as he is shaped under control of matrix and protection provided by agents (Milford 25). Prisoner of Plato later gets to know the fact that he was looking at shadows which are not true but just shadows which are form holders cast on the wall. This is because he sees fires but as he walks out of the cave following the path leading out of the cave, he finds is the sun and all things illuminated by it. In both stories characters realizes that they are prisoners and they are not aware of the reality that they think they know is not true. Both stories also share learning gift new feats (Milford 34). In the matrix, Neo is able to perform impossible feats physically once he knows ways of manipulating matrix. The prisoner presented in the cave Allegory learns immeasurable wisdom immediately he is released from the cave. The reality in The Matrix is dark and unpleasant. Characters seem to be always on a run and basically struggling for their lives. Life outside The matrix is not such vibrant or better. It is rather scarier, colder and harsher. This is quite different to whatever the prisoner meets outside which is actually a more pleasant world-one with more substance compared to what is found in those images that are presented inside the cave. Once the Plato’s prisoner was released or dragged out of the cave, he was able to find the error of his ways and realize that the enlightened life was much richer and rewarding compared to the life in the cave. If given the chance to make the choice, he would not choose to go to that cave again only to be staring at the dim shadows (Plato 72). Out of these two pieces, I believe that The Matrix is more effective in helping people’s belief about the reality.
It is more believable and relatable compared to the Allegory of the Cave. In Allegory of the Cave, prisoners are closed in a cave and are being obligated to watch screen images (Plato 68). This is different from “The matrix” where individuals appear to be fulfilling their beliefs as far as their normal life is concerned. The reason that makes me to view the Matrix as more effective is that it helps individuals realize that they should not accept the reality that they find themselves in. they should encourage questioning and as well have the ability to evaluate situations to come out with the truth about life. It offered a new perspective that individuals should always view a possibility of other realities out there. However, there is some super human power that individuals gained outside of “The matrix”. It is unbelievable that Trinity and Neo are able to bend and jump freely between
buildings. According to the Matrix, answering the question “what is real” is a bit difficult as the move is not as straight forward as the Allegory of the Cave which may help one clearly understand what reality is by presenting two cases, reality and what is not reality i.e. the shadows and the real objects whose shadows were being cast on the walls. The prisoner used to see the shadows when in the café and thought that was the reality but after was left free we got out and saw the reality and so he could differentiate between reality and what is not reality. The two films have got many similarities as discussed above but the Plato’s Allegory of the Cave was identified the best to be used in answering the question “what is real?”.
In “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato describes the cave as very dark with chained people inside and a wall where they can only see shadow illusions, which they believe is reality. Outside the cave, there is “light” and “truth.” One chained person is released into the “light,” which is uncomfortable at first, because of how bright the “light” or “truth” is however, once he adjusts, he realizes the outer world is the “truth” or reality and the cave is a shadow of reality. He pities the ones in the cave, still lost in the darkness yet, when he tries to make them see reality, their ignorance overpowers them and they kill the enlightened one out of fear and confusion. This is the kind of society, full of puppet-handlers, the narrator Sylvia in “The Lesson” dwells in and the author, Toni Cade Bambara, depicts Sylvia as being freed from the chains of ignorant society. Bambara’s released prisoner, Miss Moore, is the one to free Sylvia and the other chained prisoners and exposes them to the “light,” which is the unequal distribution of wealth and the “truth,” which is educating youth on economic inequality so the freed prisoners can learn to change their society’s shadow of reality.
Plato's Allegory of a Cave, Wachowski's Matrix, and Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time
In one of Plato’s works called The Allegory of the Cave he goes over what it means to get higher knowledge and the path you have to take to get to this higher knowledge. Plato also goes over how this higher knowledge or enlightenment will affect people and how they act. He ties this all together through what he calls the cave. Plato tells Glaucon a sort of story about how the cave works and what the people within the cave have to do to get to the enlightenment. A while down the road the Wachowski siblings with the help of Warner Brothers Studios made a movie titled The Matrix. This movie follows the came concept that Plato does in the cave. With saying that the world that Neo (the main character) was living in was in fact not real but a made
The movie, "The Matrix," parallels Platos's Allegory Of The Cave in a number of ways. Similar to the prisoners of the cave, the humans trapped in the matrix (the cave) only see what the machines (the modern day puppet-handlers) want them to see. They are tricked into believing that what they hear in the cave and see before them is the true reality that exists. Furthermore, they accept what their senses are telling them and they believe that what they are experiencing is all that really exists--nothing more.
This student of Philosophy now sees the movie The Matrix in a whole new way after gaining an understanding of some of the underlying philosophical concepts that the writers of the movie used to develop an intriguing and well thought out plot. Some of the philosophical concepts were clear, while others were only hinted at and most likely overlooked by those unfamiliar with those concepts, as was this student when the movie first came out in theaters all those many years ago. In this part of the essay we will take a look at the obvious and not so obvious concepts of: what exactly is the Matrix and how does it related to both Descartes and Plato, can we trust our own senses once we understand what the Matrix is, and how Neo taking the Red Pill is symbolic of the beginning of the journey out of Pl...
...The Matrix” and Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” almost gives the idea that the movies writers may have had a lot of influence from Plato’s allegory. The creation of this movie gives and futuristic prospective of “The Allegory of the Cave” letting the people who have seen the movie think about reality and the truth. In conclusion, Plato’s story of the cave brings up many philosophical points and most significantly, addresses the topic of society’s role in our lives. On some level, we are all influenced by the thoughts and actions of everyone else, but at the same time, we as humans have the ability to question, make our own conclusions, and finally make our own choices.
The Allegory of the Cave is a parable that demonstrates how humans are afraid of change and what they do not know. In this work, Plato suggests a situation in which men are living in an underground cave. The one entrance is located near the top and there, a burning fire casts shadow. The men of the cave are chained so that they can only see the wall and cannot turn around. When objects pass by it creates a shadow on the wall. The shadows are the only thing they can see and therefore is the only thing they know to exist (747). Somehow one of them gets loose and wanders outside the cave (748). When he gets out, he is astonished at what he finds. He comes back in to tell the others about what he saw. The other men think he is mad and plot to kill him (749). This illustrates how fear, inherent in the primitive nature of man, only serves to promote his ignorance.
both stories shared similar ending and moral which is receiving enlightenment in first hand. "The
The Allegory of the Cave is Plato's explanation of the education of the soul toward enlightenment. He sees it as what happens when someone is educated to the level of philosopher. He contends that they must "go back into the cave" or return to the everyday world of politics, greed and power struggles. The Allegory also attacks people who rely upon or are slaves to their senses. The chains that bind the prisoners are the senses. The fun of the allegory is to try to put all the details of the cave into your interpretation. In other words, what are the models the guards carry? the fire? the struggle out of the cave? the sunlight? the shadows on the cave wall? Socrates, in Book VII of The Republic, just after the allegory told us that the cave was our world and the fire was our sun. He said the path of the prisoner was our soul's ascent to knowledge or enlightenment. He equated our world of sight with the intellect's world of opinion. Both were at the bottom of the ladder of knowledge. Our world of sight allows us to "see" things that are not real, such as parallel lines and perfect circles. He calls this higher understanding the world "abstract Reality" or the Intelligeble world. He equates this abstract reality with the knowledge that comes from reasoning and finally understanding. On the physical side, our world of sight, the stages of growth are first recognition of images (the shadows on the cave wall) then the recognition of objects (the models the guards carry) To understand abstract reality requires the understanding of mathematics and finally the forms or the Ideals of all things (the world outside the cave). But our understanding of the physical world is mirrored in our minds by our ways of thinking. First comes imagination (Socrates thought little of creativity), then our unfounded but real beliefs. Opinion gives way to knowledge through reasoning (learned though mathematics). Finally, the realization of the forms is mirrored by the level of Understanding in the Ways of Thinking. The key to the struggle for knowledge is the reasoning skills acquired through mathematics as they are applied to understanding ourselves. The shadows on the cave wall change continually and are of little worth, but the reality out side the cave never changes and that makes it important.
Freedom in mind, freedom in nature, and freedom in subjectivity of individual are three kinds of freedoms. However, freedom should be expressed within the limits of reason and morality. Having freedom equals having the power to think, to speak, and to act without externally imposed restrains. As a matter of fact, finding freedom in order to live free is the common idea in Plato with "The Allegory of the Cave"; Henry David Thoreau with " Where I lived and What I lived for"; and Jean Paul Sartre with " Existentialism". Generally, Plato, Thoreau, and Sartre suggested that human life should be free. They differ in what that freedom is. Plato thinks it is found in the world of intellect, Thoreau thinks freedom is found in nature, and Sartre thinks freedom is found in subjectivity of individual.
In The Cave prisoners are chained, from birth, to face a wall within a dark cave. These prisoners have never had any interactions with the outside world. Their only understanding of the outside world comes from a bridge and a fire at their backs. When people, animals, or objects cross the bridge, the fire projects their shadows upon the cave wall which the prisoners are facing. To these prisoners, the obscure shadows which dance along the walls of the cave are the only “real” thing they know. To their brains, which have never experienced, seen, or came into any contact with anything in the outside world, this is reality. To the prisoners, reality is a jumble of dark shadows which occasionally move from one end of a cave wall to another. This is their perception of reality because it is all they have ever known. While The Matrix does not involve prisoners being chained to a cave wall, the ideas within it are very much the same as in The Cave. Neo, the main character in The Matrix, has unknowingly been living in the matrix his whole life. The matrix world is his reality much like the shadows on the cave wall are the prisoner’s reality. As the world outside of the cave is the true world for the prisoners, the true reality for Neo is the real world which exists outside of the matrix, which is a highly advanced
In this allegory, the depictions of humans as they are chained, their only knowledge of the world is what is seen inside the cave. Plato considers what would happen to people should they embrace the concepts of philosophy, become enlightened by it, and see things as they truly are. As we have mentioned in class, Plato’s theory did not only present itself in his allegory, but also in the Wachowski brothers’ hit film, The Matrix. In the film, the protagonist, Neo, suffers from a similar difficulty of adapting to reality, or the truth, which we will see later on. In order to understand Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, one must consider how Plato’s use of symbols to explain what true knowledge (or enlightenment) really is along with the comparisons to the Wachowski brothers’ film, The Matrix.
The Matrix modernizes the originality of the Allegory of the cave and adds a more feelings towards the question of reality and how others interperts it. The film and the Allegory have many similarities and differnces but they revolve around the same metaphysical question. Even thought they have many similarities and differnces but the important ones for me are: the film and the allegory's view on reality to others, Neo and the freed man are controlled and the final, the difference between Neo and the freed man are the experince of life.
Plato’s allegory of the cave include the light, the objects, and the shadows. The novel named “The Picture of Dorian Grey” contains a purposeful meaning for each key component. In the cave, individuals are shown the shadows of puppets which they consider their reality; however, it’s only a “fake” representation of reality. Just as Dorian Grey’s beautiful appearance was merely a “fake” copy of himself when he was pure and innocent, it never disappeared because of his immortality. Yet, when the individuals have been shown the objects, they are skeptical about the “true” reality, not knowing that they are seeing the truth behind the shadows. Similar to the picture of Dorian Grey, which portrayed his ghastly appearance, contained his true-self
In the movie The Matrix we find a character by the name of Neo and his struggle adapting to the truth...to reality. This story is closely similar to an ancient Greek text written by Plato called "The Allegory of the Cave." Now both stories are different but the ideas are basically the same. Both Stories have key points that can be analyzed and related to one another almost exactly. There is no doubt that The Matrix was based off Greek philosophy. The idea of freeing your mind or soul as even stated in "The Allegory of the Cave" is a well known idea connecting to Greek philosophy. The Matrix is more futuristic and scientific than "The Cave" but it's the same Idea. Neo is trapped in a false reality created by a computer program that was created by machines that took over the planet. Now the story of course has many themes such as Man vs. Machine, Good vs. Evil, and our favorite Reality vs. Illusion. Neo is unplugged from the matrix and learns the truth and becomes "the one" who is to save the humans from their machine oppressors. "The Cave" is similar in that it has humans trapped in a cave and chained up to only face one direction. The "puppeteers" then make shadows against the wall the humans face using the fire from the outside as a light source. One big difference is that "The Cave" is about two philosophers conversing about the cave as one explains what needs to happen and that the prisoners must free their souls to find truth. The Matrix is the actions of what the philosopher describes actually happening. The comparing of the two stories will show how things said in "The Cave" are the same as in The Matrix, of course with the exception that one is futuristic ...