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Albert Camus wrote the Myth of Sysiphus. The stories main character is Sysiphus. He lived in Ancient Greece and was the founder and king of a prosperous city called Corinth. Sysiphus was an extremely smart and clever man but did indeed possess a passionate desire to outwit the gods. Sysiphus also possessed a highly rebellious nature. During his time, he was a mortal man who had the audasity to match wits with the gods. Sysiphus was condemned to role a rock up to the top of a mountain, watch it role back down again, and then push it back up again.
His passionate and rebellious nature combined with his desire to outwit the gods is what led to his fate of futile labor. For example, Jupiter, the god of the Sea, abducted Aegina, the daughter of Aesopus. Aesopus was naturally quite distressed by this event and went to Sysiphus to complain of this monstrosity. Sysiphus knew where Aegina had been taken. He then told Aesopus where Jupiter had taken Aegina on the Condition that that Aesopus would provide water to the city of Corinth. Sysiphus tricked death when it came and took him to the underworld he left death there in chains. Sysiphus also once wanted to test his wife's love for him. He ordered her to publicly display his body and not give him a proper burial. Once he was condemned to the underworld he complained to Pluto that he needed to return so that he could chastise his wife. After once again seeing the pleasures of this world he didn’t want to return to the underworld and for many years he did not. Once again the gods had been outwitted by Sysiphus, a mere mortal. This angered them deeply. Mercury came to seize Sysiphus and ,at once, condemned him to the underworld to carry out his Fate.
Albert Camus, the author of the Myth of the cave wrote this Myth during the tumultuous Shambles of WWII. All around him he witnessed the pain and suffering people had to indure from the outcome of war. He had a bleak but courageous outlook for what one could only imagine to be a very trying time for people. Camus believed that the essence of man was irrational and life is nonessential, but one should face life with a sort of courageous humanism. Camus rather enjoyed the more rebellious side of human nature.
In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and the song “The Cave,” by Mumford and Sons, they both treat the metaphor of a cave as a dark, bad, and evil antagonist that restricts you from seeing the truth and reaching your full potential. The cave can be seen as a permanent chain or an opportunity for change.
In conclusion, Plato's story of the cave brings up many philosophical points and most importantly, addresses the issue of society's role in our lives. To some degree, we are all influenced by the thoughts and actions of others; however, at the same time, we have the ability to question, draw our own conclusions, and ultimately make our own choices.
The Allegory of the Cave has many parallels with The Truman Show. Initially, Truman is trapped in his own “cave”; a film set or fictional island known as Seahaven. Truman’s journey or ascension into the real world and into knowledge is similar to that of Plato’s cave dweller. In this paper, I will discuss these similarities along with the very intent of both of these works whose purpose is for us to question our own reality.
My understanding of the cave allegory is someone who has lived his life in confinement; the only life he has ever known. Isolated from the outside world, everything that he experiences is a false reality. He sees things projected on the wall and he thinks they are real, when in fact, they are illusions. Once he is torn away from his environment, he is frightened of what he is now experiencing. As his senses awaken, he begins to see and experience the beauty all around him. He now realizes that this is how life is truly meant to live and he must go back and share his discovery with the others. However, they are not eager to leave their familiar surroundings. Upon returning to the cave, he has a hard time adjusting to his previous environment, He now knows all that he previously thought was
Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex introduced the one of the most important tragic heroes of Greek literature. First performed in the fifth century B.C.E., the play is centered around Oedipus, the king of the Greek city-state Thebes, and his struggle to conquer his emotions as he seeks out the true story of his life. This work, inspired by a well-known Greek myth, scrutinizes both the tragic flaws of Oedipus and his heroism. Examples of Oedipus’ tragic flaws abound in the play. In his condemnation of Tiresias and Creon, Oedipus is controlled by his emotions. However, the heroism of Oedipus is also an essential theme of the drama, though it is often downplayed. Despite this, careful analysis can uncover many instances in which Oedipus exhibits his heroism by attempting to control his emotions and discover the truth of his origins. In his finest moments, Oedipus is in complete command of his emotions as he searches for the truth, while at his nadir, Oedipus is completely controlled by his emotions and is absolutely unpredictable. This contrast is, in large part, what makes Oedipus a tragic hero. Oedipus, King of Thebes, is among the greatest Hellenistic tragic heroes because of his fight to overcome his greatest flaw, his uncontrollable anger, as he heroically searches for the truth.
Both authors make a point of showing the narrow-mindedness of humans by nature. In “Allegory of the Cave”, the prisoners believed that the shadows they were seeing were reality, with nothing more to it. The comfort of the said perceived, and therefore the fear of the unrecognized outside world would end in the prisoner being forced to climb the steep ascent of the cave and step outside int...
We may think that we come up we ideas and theories because is something that happened in our mind and that nobody had to do something with it but all our surround environment influence us in how we take decision, in what we believe and much more. Philosophers had been influence throughout their life by other people in order to come up with their works. The philosophical work of some of the great philosophers of all time such as Plato, Marx, Freud and Carnegie were also influenced by the environment in which they were living. In the “Allegory of the Cave”, Plato was influenced by several events that happened in his life that lead to him writing this essay in a way to express his feeling on what society do to people that can show them reality.
The plague affected people not only on a physical level but a mental one as well. The mental health of the citizens of Oran was amongst the plague's many victims, it suffered of exhaustion as well as being forced to handle mental confrontations. When the citizens dealt with these issues, some people lost their capacity to love as intently, but overall the general capacity of people to uphold their devotion remained resilient to the challenges the plague provided.
Plato. “The Allegory of the Cave.” A World of Ideas. 9th ed. Ed. Lee A.Jacobus. Boston: Bedford/St.Martins, 2013.Print
Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus, made the tragic hero. In the play, a prophecy comes along that says the namesake character Oedipus will kill his father and impregnate his mother. Oedipus tries to avoid doing these things (which ironically makes Oedipus the only person without an Oedipus complex, but that’s besides the point). One day an old man tries to run Oedipus off the road with his chariot and in response, Oedipus kills him. Later, Oedipus solves the Riddle of the Sphinx (here’s a hint, its man), saving the city of Thebes. Oedipus in return is crowned king and receives the widowed queen as his bride. Everything is now just swell, until a mysterious plague comes over Thebes. Oedipus consults an oracle who says that the plague will continue until the murderer of the previous king is brought to justice. Oedipus ...
“The Allegory Of The Cave” story was very deep because it symbolizes so much to life back then and still life today. It’s crazy life now still reflects with life today. That's how you know people don’t open their minds up to new ideas. If people opened up their minds I feel as if the world would be a nicer place because people would understand other people’s situation. This is what I think about the
From the very beginning of Oedipus, it is made clear “that his destiny be one of fate and worse”. The irony is that Oedipus unknowingly repeatedly predicts his own fate: “It was I who called down these curses on that man.” Oedipus has unconsciously married his mother and killed his father, just as the Oracle predicted. Fate is proven to be unavoidable to Oedipus as the play shows a devout belief in the Greek gods. The Gods are seen as both “protectors” and “punishers”, who can “turn fate back away”. The gods are shown to have power over everything and everyone, and whoever ignores them will be cursed by the “darts no one escapes”. Oedipus is one of these people who is seen to have ignored the gods’ warnings and therefore has brought a curse upon himself, and all those around him: “Nothing grows in the earth, nothing in the wombs of the women.” With the idea of fate comes the question of fairness. Does Oedipus deserve his pitiful destiny and if it was so pre-decided then why? It was yet again the God’s powers.
Plato's Allegory of the Cave is a representation of the normal human behavior as well as the circumstances we presently encounter on a day-to-day basis. The Allegory of the Cave symbolically describes our circumstances as human beings in today’s world. Plato uses a number of key elements to depict the image of the human condition. Plato's images contain relatable ideas in regards to society that are related to my everyday life. By reading Plato I have personally begun to expand my though process and have learned not to rely solely on my senses. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave brings philosophy’s teachings to the forefront and makes it easy for us readers to understand what philosophy is trying to teach us.
Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave is a short story specifically discussing the parallels between the shadows the prisoners sees on the wall of the cave, and the illusion, which passes off as truth in today's society. The Allegory of the Cave is about Socrates teaching his student, Glaucon, certain principles of life by telling him one of his allegories. The Allegory of the Cave can be interpreted in many ways; one way is to make a comparison between the story and the way of thinking by individuals in a closed society.
Plato, a student of Socrates, in his book “The Republic” wrote an allegory known as “Plato's Cave”. In Plato's allegory humans are trapped within a dark cave where they can only catch glimpses of the world above through shadows on the wall.2 Plato is describing how the typical human is. They have little knowledge and what they think they know has very little basis in fact. He describes these people as prisoners, in his allegory, and they are only free when they gain knowledge of the world above the cave.