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analysis of plato's allegory of the cave
Mass media manipulation influence
analysis of plato's allegory of the cave
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Parallels Between The Truman Show and Plato's Allegory of the Cave The movie, 'The Truman Show' is about a reality television show that has been created to document the life of a man who, adopted at birth by a television network, is tricked into believing that his life, his reality, is normal and the environment that he lives is real. It is set in a town called Seahaven, which is essentially a simulation of the real world similar enough to the outside world that the viewing audience can relate to it. The town is a television studio inside an enormous dome in which the weather, the sun, the sky, and all the actions of the citizens are directed by a team of special effects people. The entire show is directed and produced by the creator of the show, Christof. Truman Burbank, the star of the show, is the only one who doesn't know that he lives in a giant studio and is surrounded by an illusion of reality. The entire world watches Truman's movements twenty four hours a day, seven days a week through the use of thousands of miniature hidden cameras. The Truman Show closely parallels Plato's Allegory of the Cave. 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. Truman, much like the prisoners in the cave, would know no difference then what they have been taught or shown to be the real world their whole lives. If T...
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...
In The Truman Show, directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Wiccol, a man named Truman Burbank is unknowingly the star of a reality TV show. The film’s audience finds this out before he does, and wants him to realize that nothing around him is real and that it would be best for him to leave Seahaven. As the reality that Christof created falls apart around Truman, the audience observes every moment and knows the truth and wants Truman to as well. The intimate relationship established with the audience in The Truman Show is scrutinized because of the surveillance that Truman is under and the constructed reality falling apart.
Throughout The Truman Show there are constantly eyes everywhere in the form of the viewers, the actors, the production team, Christof and of course, the cameras. Commercialism is pervasive in the film and Weir explores the falsity of commercials and the world portrayed by his use of motifs. Peter Weir’s use of eyes is used to convey the commercialism of Truman’s world and how his entire life is fake and he, himself is a puppet in Christof’s endeavour to sell products. The Truman Show is a world portrayed by commercialism, and their promise of that world, is false. Through Truman’s eyes we are shown his confusion when both Meryl and Marlon act like they are selling a product to him like they were reading from a script, when in reality they are and are also getting paid to do so to the audience of ‘The Truman Show’. The eyes of these viewers are regularly assaulted with product placement by Meryl and Marlon, made extremely evident when they face the camera straight on to sell their product. During his “TruTalk” interview, Christof explains that everything on The Truman Show is for sale and is completely funded by Meryl and Marlon’s product placement. Other objects, such as the advertising billboard that the twins, Don and Ron, push Truman into as an act of commercialism, are also used, which the camera eye zooms in
“In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave” it represents an allegory that signifies real life meaning.Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is about questioning the fundamental reality of experience.The information In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” is interpreted with real life. I would say the genre of the allegory is nonfiction. It focuses on prisoners who are being held captive. They are being held inside of a cave.The prisoners cave freedom, however hopes being at an all time low due to the fact that the prisoners are bound and chained by the neck. The only thing to observe, a wall with shadows coming in from the fire light that blazes before them.The fire that blazed inside the cave would display shadows of other people walking throughout the cave holding
The allegory of the cave is one of Plato’s many theories, probably one of his most known theories as well. This theory is based on the human perception. Plato would say that the knowledge gained through the senses is no more than your opinion but in order to have actual knowledge you have to obtain it through philosophical reasoning. In his theory, he separates people who think that their sensory knowledge it the truth and people who really see the truth.
The Truman Show engenders question on the authenticity of behavior and virtue in the face of pervasive voyeurism(which I will refer to in an exclusively non sexual manner). The Truman Show expostulates that an unaware participant in this perverted voyeurism, no matter the level of cognizant awareness, is still inauthentic because of the pervasive manipulation by Cristof and his cronies and the willing deception by Truman Show 's costars. These factors engender a contrived scenario that forces Truman to act in an expected manner—rather than natural--much like the intrusive Mr. B and English society (but really Richardson) forces Pamela to act virtuous. Pamela is an apt point of comparison for the Truman Show because both mark the genesis of a new medium in their respective cultures. Pamela is regarded as one of the catalysts for the epistolary novel and elevated novel in England; in
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 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
Many movies and television series depict a world of perfection. More specifically, in The Truman Show directed by Peter Weir, Truman lives a perfect life with no problems or challenges to face. Then Truman realizes that his perfect world isn't as perfect as he first thought and he becomes curious. He wants to find out what is really going on with his ideal world and if it is perfect after all. In the movie, The Truman Show, Weir depicts Truman as an ignorant character through Truman’s supposedly utopian society, demonstrating that when one learns of one’s ignorance to society’s problems, one must confront these issues in order to comprehend how these issues affect society.
People are all subject to being influenced by their environment and others. For Truman Burbank, the main character of The Truman Show, his environment has heavily influenced him his entire life. Truman, an allegorical character who represents the people of the world, resides in a studio built like a city with hidden cameras and all the residents of the city are actors. Truman, however, has no knowledge of the show, which was created and is directed by Christof. Christof influences Truman’s life and decisions for the sake of the show. By Christof influencing Truman, The Truman Show satirically suggests how the media heavily influences our lives even though we may be unaware.
How would it feel to be brought into the world where lives are predestined or real life situations are constructed to work in order to benefit society as a whole? Within the book, Brave New World and the movie, The Truman Show, the theme of sacrificing personal identity in order to benefit society runs throughout each work. The ideas and opinions of the public coincide harmoniously as the society they live in. Bernard Marx and John Savage are two predominant characters of Brave New World. Both are outcasts of the World State because of their differing opinions from the rest of the “conditioned” society. Truman, the protagonist of The Truman Show also is at loss because he was unaware of the false reality he was living. Marx, Savage and Truman have all had their personal identities sacrificed for specific reasons and prompts them to overcome their higher powers.
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.
Truman displays great zeal for life like a lunatic, but he discovers that his life was not real. He then goes on, with the same, undying fanaticism to investigate the living hell that was once his happy life. In his methods, he embodies the Socratic virtues of courage and temperance as he lunges forth like a great tiger somewhere in Africa. He then finds wisdom by realizing the truth, and deciding to leave the comfortable fake-world for the uncertain real world. The cast lacks the courage and the wisdom to tell Truman the truth, the director has all three but in all the wrong ways, and the audience lacks the wisdom to know that by not watching the show they free Truman, lacks the temperance for indulging on the show every day, and lacks the courage to do something more productive with their lives in the time they spend watching the Truman Show. The audience chooses to live in that world over their own, and some grow enough obsession to delude themselves by favoring Truman’s world and living as if they are on the
In order to understand the moral fabric of the world, it is important to question any information that is given to an individual, instead of blindly accepting the majority opinion and giving it full credibility and validity based on other people’s opinions. Plato’s work, The Republic introduces the allegory of the cave, which is metaphorical scenario that attempts to explain the importance of questioning norms that may seem trivial. Plato illustrates a cave where bounded prisoners have lived all their lives in seclusion, away from the outside world. In their immobile state, they can only look at the wall in front of them which is illuminated by a small fire that has been going on behind them. The wall constantly projects shadows of people passing by outside the cave going about their daily lives. The prisoners have never seen anything else, and they have never experienced the outside world, so they are content in what they have. Plato then, poses a problem of one prisoner escaping, and he analyzes and hypothesises what the initial reaction of the escaped man would be. The first thing the prisoner would experience would be blindness, ironically from the overwhelming exposure to light as he steps out from the cave. Soon, he will begin to realize his ignorance as he sees that the shadows he had seen all his life were actually real people. Plato concludes that his idea of the perfect life inside the cave was ill conceived and that the prisoner would have never been aware of the world outside, had he not escaped. Similarly, The Truman Show, directed by Peter Weir, follows the life of a man in the utopian town of Seahaven. What the protagonist isn’t aware of however is that his entire life has been broadcasted throughout the world; as a...
Kokonis, M. (2002). Postmodernism, Hyperreality and the Hegemony of Spectacle in New Hollywood: The Case of The Truman Show. Available: http://genesis.ee.auth.gr/dimakis/Gramma/7/02-kokonis.htm Last accessed 22nd Dec 2013.