A couple of weeks ago my classmates and I learned about the
famous Greek Philosopher Plato and his Allegory of the Cave. It tells the story
of a group of prisoners who have been chained up against a wall for all their
lives and all they saw were shadows projected onto the wall they were facing of
the of the objects passing by a fire that was behind them that they couldn’t
see. These shadows were the closest thing to reality for the prisoners. They
thought that the shadows were all there was to know about life and there was
nothing else to know.
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| Plato's Allegory of the Cave http://impiousdigest.com/platoscav.jpg |
Later in the story one of the prisoners is released and is
brought out of the cave and learned that the shadows that he believed to be
true all his life was in fact not real, but only a “form” of the real object.
He couldn’t believe his own eyes of what he saw once he was released the truth
and when he ventured out the cave and saw the sun for the first time ever, he
was “enlightened” of the truth and of the real world. Lastly in Plato’s
Allegory, the freed prisoner comes back to the cave where the other prisoners to
tell them that all they know in life from these shadows is nothing but a lie
and there is more out there than they could ever believe. The other ignorant,
chained up prisoners didn’t believe the freed man for they believed he had gone
crazy. They resisted the truth because they were not able to see the truth in
their own eyes.
After learning about Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, I
couldn’t help but think about all of the similarities it has with The Matrix Trilogy
that came out at the start of the 21st century. For those of you
that haven’t seen any of the movies, it follows the story of Mr. Anderson, also
known as Neo, a regular day man with a regular life like you and me, and his
“enlightenment” as he discovers that everything he knows is a lie and happens
to be “The One” to fight against the antagonist known as the machines and free
all those other prisoners. It’s a very complex story that spans three films.
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| The prisoners chained up in The Matrix. http://www.oocities.org/larkspur10/neo/228/towers.jpg |
The first similarity I can’t help but notice is the
connection that Neo has with the freed prisoner. In the film, you can consider
Neo as the prisoner chained up against the wall where his everyday life of
going to work, the bed he sleeps in, the clothes he wears is nothing but a lie
and a “form” of the real thing. I like to compare it to the shadows that the
prisoners see in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. The Matrix, the made up world
that Neo resides in the trilogy, is nothing but a cave where the machines make
Neo and everyone else as the prisoners and that they see only what the machines
want them to see, much like the people holding the object walking by the fire
in the Cave.
The next similarity I can’t help but notice is where in the
film, Neo encounters Morpheus who offers him two pills, where one pill, the
blue pill, would have Neo stay in the Matrix and continue his life as is, or
the red pill, would have Neo taken into a world outside of the Matrix (the
cave) and learn about the reality of his life. He chooses the red pill and is
finally taken out of the “cave” of the Matrix and discovers the real world as fascinating
and enlightening as the prisoner did once he escaped out of the cave.
The rest of the prisoners within the Matrix wouldn’t believe
Neo if he told them of the world that existed outside of the one that they have
lived in and everything they know is not real, much like how the freed man tried
convincing the other prisoners of the outside world as well.
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| What would you chose? The red or blue pill? http://agilitrix.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/redblue_pill.jpg |
Both these stories got me thinking as well. Is the life that
we live in right now nothing but an illusion or form of the real thing? Do you
believe that we are trapped or chained in the Matrix like the movie describes?
John, this is by far the most compelling and accurate blog post I had read thus far. Your connections between the Allegory of the Cave and the Matrix are extremely vivid and telling. The perception of reality and truth has been a notion that has been explored through many mediums. Many philosophers held multiple discourses over this subject, authors used the search for truth in their fictitious creations, and now we see that this has been an inspiration for the film. I honestly find no fault in any of your arguments; I’m just astonished that there is such an accurate parallel for the Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, there some obvious inconsistencies that detract from the overall flow of the argument. The Allegory of the cave is more of a yearning for truth, understanding, and perception of reality. The Matrix addresses these core concepts, but the entire film in my opinion is about the savior of humanity from a oppressive power. This is more religious and historical rather than philosophical. Some of the parallels can be viewed as biblical. Overall, the connections between the Matrix and the Allegory of the cave are extremely apparent, and Plato would be extremely honored to being put at the same level and the ever so illustrious and respected actor Keanu Reeves.