Parallels between The Movie, "The Matrix" and Plato's Allegory Of The Cave In Book VII of The Republic, Plato tells a story entitled "The Allegory Of The Cave." He begins the story by describing a dark underground cave where a group of people are sitting in one long row with their backs to the cave's entrance. Chained to their chairs from an early age, all the humans can see is the distant cave wall in from of them. Their view of reality is soley based upon this limited view of the cave which but is a poor copy of the real world. In addition to the chained people, there are other people in the cave. Plato refers to them as the puppet-handlers and they are the ones holding those in the cave captive. (It is important to realize that the prisoners do not realize this--in fact, the prisoners do not even realize that they are being held captive since this existence is all they have ever known.) Walking behind the prisoners, the puppet-handlers hold up various objects found in the real world. Due to a fire that is burning the mouth of the cave, the prisoners are able to see the objects and each other only as distorted, flickering shadows on the cavern wall in front of them. Unfortunately, the prisoners can not see the actual objects or the puppet-makers because they are unable to turn their heads. From childhood, "...their legs and necks [have been] in bonds so that they are fixed, seeing only [what is] in front of them.... As Plato goes on to later explain, "the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images." 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. However, Neo is forced to face a painful truth when he is removed from the pod that has kept him trapped in the virtual reality of the matrix. Neo discovers that what he has been presented with his entire life is only reflections, or merely shadows of the truth. This theme is carried throughout the movie as we see ... ... middle of paper ... ...yone to take them out of the cave. They would fight to stay in the cave because it is the only world they have ever known and it is where they feel safe. In "The Matrix," Cypher kills several people in his quest to go back to the matrix (the cave). Morpheus tells Neo the same thing in regard to the humans still plugged or trapped in the world of the matrix. "You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged [forced out of the matrix--the cave]. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it." Society's Role In Our Lives 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. As Trinity tell Neo, "The Matrix can not tell you who you are." By being courageous enough to turn around and take the red pill, we, just like Neo and the Freed Man, are making the first step towards personal independence.
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
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...
Let us begin with the comparison of The Matrix with Plato’s Excerpt The Allegory of the Cave and Descartes Excerpt Meditation I. All of these readings seem to have characters that are in a world made of illusions and dreams. Deception is also very prominent in these stories; the characters are being deceived by what they see and by the world around them. In these stories, it is essential for the characters to uncover the truth about what is the true reality. In The Matrix Neo was told that the world he thought was real was actually nothing more than a virtual world made up by a computer program. He was not aware of the real world until he took a red pill, this awoken Neo from his dream state and allowed him to see beyond what he thought was true. Neo experienced different emotions after taking the pill. He experiences denial, confusion, and fear but finally ...
In “Plato’s Republic” he tells a story of a cave with people being shackled and kept in the shadows. These people can only see shadows of objects on the cave wall and believe that this is reality. Plato writes as Socrates and says, “Imagine human beings as if they were in a cave-like dwelling underground, with a broad opening to the daylight across the whole width of the cave. They have been there since childhood, chained not just by their legs but by their necks, so that they can’t move and can only look ahead of them…Light reaches them from a fire that burns way above and behind them…there is a path across the cave, beside which you need to imagine a little wall, built like those screens puppeteers have in front of their audience so they can show their puppets above them.” (Republic, 239-240). This is illustrating the lie that is being pandered to the people and that this lie then puts the people into bondage. These lies that we live makes us absolutely miserable, but because this is what we have accepted as true since childhood we do not question what is familiar to us. The people in the cave cannot move at all and must just look at the
The autobiography I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai begins with the scene of young pakistani education and women’s rights activist Malala being shot in the head. Her school bus had been stopped by the Taliban who, after asking which of the girls was Malala, put a bullet into her head. Malala ends the powerful prologue with the words “Who is Malala? I am Malala and this is my story” (9). Malala then rewinds to the story of her birth and how in Pakistan, no one congratulated her parents when she was born because she was a girl. Pakistani culture pushes for the birth of a boy as an islamic majority country. However, her father saw the potential in his daughter as a great leaser and named her after one of the great female leaders in Pakistan- Malalai of Maiwand who inspired the Afghan people, who were losing hope, to spur the army to victory against the British/Indian forces. Malala describes life in Mingora, Swat Valley, Pakistan. She outlines the Indian- Pakistan revolution and the shift of the Pashtun people into the Swat Valley. Malala’s father grew up in Shahpur but struggled to get his education in the town where he met Malala’s mother. They married and his dream of building a school, Khushal Public School, became reality when they moved into Mingora.
The 1999 film, The Matrix, shows many philosophical instances. Comparing this film to Plato’s The Republic: The Allegory of the Cave, and Descartes’ First Meditation on Philosophy allows one to gain a deeper understanding of the work. Reality is a concept that may be vague to many people due to their given circumstances. The environment and the mind a person is in allows for different perceptions of reality. The power of reality falls in the eyes of the beholder. As shown in The Matrix, Neo was not the One until he believed he was, which can percept into everyday life; how someone thinks can affect how someone is.
The Allegory of the Cave uses the people, who are creating the scenes for the prisoners, as the powerful people in society. These people have control of the input that goes into our lives. In the Matrix these people would be known as the machines. The machines controlled anything they knew. The people and the machine used false things to portray something as being real. The prisoners were manipulated into believing that what they had been taught was real. It is sad though, because the people who are portraying false things, also live in the fake world that they
A heroine is an individual with courage, one who who has notable achievements, and improves a society, region, country, or the world. These traits resemble those of an archetypal hero, but an archetypal hero also includes the individual having gone through a traumatic experience. Malala Yousafzai exceeds the criteria for an archetypal hero and a heroine. As a young woman of only 18 years, Yousafzai has accomplished feats beyond what most people her age, or even grown adults could imagine. Malala grew up in the “Swat district of north-west Pakistan.” Being that Pakistan contains the second to most children out of school, Malala, by the age of 11, became an advocate for girls obtaining an education. This however, made her an opponent and target of the Taliban; a group of
It has been discussed by many scholars that In The Matrix, Morpheus describes the matrix as a prison for your mind, a dependent construct. This concept of a “dependent construct” is similar to the Buddhist idea of Samsara. Samsara teaches that the world in which we live our daily lives is constructed from the sensory projections formulated from our own desires. According to Buddhism and The Matrix, our conviction of reality which we base on sensory experience and desire keeps us locked in an illusion until we are able to recognize the false nature of our reality and let go of our sense of identity or self. In the matrix, Neo is offered a chance to be awakened to this fact. To be shown that he is in fact in a false reality and has been fooled by it due to his ignorant trust of his sensory
In the “Allegory of the Cave” the prisoners having “their legs and necks chained” symbolizes their inability to leave the cave and experience the outside world (Plato 284). The matrix blinds the people in the movie so they do not know of any other outside world. They were “born into bondage” because of the shadows of the reality that are projected into the real world (Matrix). The experiences of the prisoners in “The Allegory of the Cave” and the people in the Matrix deviate from that of people that are enlightened, because all that they experience is fabricated.
The Matrix is about a man, called Neo, who was living an average life, and was heavily into computer hacking. One day he receives messages appearing on his computer leading him towards a meeting with a powerful man named Morphius. Morphius alerts Neo that the reason that the reason that all of federal agents were chasing him and all of these other things were happening to him because he was “the one”. He was searches for a greater truth in the world than what was just there in his face, and Morphius says that he could show Neo that truth. Morphius then holds two pills in his hands, one pill would lead him to the truth, the other would just take him back to his regular life as if nothing ever happened. Neo wanted the truth about the world so Morphius explained it. He said that the perception is that our day-in, day-out world is real; in reality, that world is a hoax, an elaborate deception spun by al...
The Matrix shows the doubts on how reality and truth is or isn’t. How people actually perceive reality, truth, is really different on how other people do. The reality of something can change over time. On how choices affect the timeline of events and the future of yourself and other people. This movie makes philosophy be more understandable and have modern concept, showing how to doubt our reality, how different is the perspective and truth of people, and on how the choices affect our reality.
Malala is just one teenage girl with the extraordinary power of speech vr. A group of millions of men called the taliban with a very different power called violence. Malala was born in pakistan, a place were being born as a woman is like a curse. Women are not allowed to be adjudicated and in some places they are not allowed to go outside. But Malala was a rebel. She went to a school even though it was a big risk. But one afternoon the taliban shot malala in the side of her head on the on the way back home. A miracle happened. Malala refused the journey to heaven end after months she healed. Know she lives safely in england where she uses the power of speech.
Malala Yousafazai was campaigning for the right of young girls' education. Pakistani Taliban threatened her to stop. If she would not back down, she would ultimately have to deal with the repercussions of her actions.
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 ...