The metaphors within Giovanni’s room are Giovanni’s prison, symbolic of Giovanni’s life, holding the relationship between Giovanni and David, being a metaphor of homosexuality for David and being a tomb underwater. These metaphors are negative and exist to demonstrate to the reader that homosexuality is restricting, punishing, dirty and suffocating. These negative connotations of homosexuality are brought from society and internalized by the characters and builds into self hate. Works Cited: Baldwin, James, and Caryl Phillips. Giovanni's Room.
Both the prisoners of the cave, and Neo from the Matrix, have to transcend on the path of ‘enlightenment’ to know the truth of their own worlds. Deep within the cave the prisoners are chained by their necks and have a limited view of reality. Around them, by the distant light of the fire, they only see shadows and outlines of people or objects. From their conclusions of what they may think is real, are false. “The Matrix” parallels Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” in a number of ways.
Between Plato’s allegory and the Matrix, you can see that both people in both stories, the prisoners and Neo, are brought from their caves and into the light to seek their true reality. The prisoner sees shadows in the cave, which is a direct comparison to what Neo sees in the Matrix. The Matrix itself is a prison built as a virtual world that controls everyone and everything in it and is basically another reality. This other world has things in it that we cannot see, smell, or touch. It puts you into a virtual state of mind, so even when you think you are not trapped, you still are trapped.
To Plato, the cave represents the confusion between reality and falsehood. Individuals chained deep within the recesses of the cave mistake their shadows for physical existence. These false perceptions, and the escape from bonds held within the cave symbolize transition into the a world of reality. Comparatively, in the Odyssey, Odysseus must first break with Kalypso, and set himself free before he can return to Ithaka, when he will then be prepared to release Penelope from the bondage of suitors. His experience within the cave is in itself a world of fantasy, in that Kalypso is a supernatural being, and the only way to escape her enslavement is to receive assistance from immortals superior to her.
Plato's Theory of Knowledge Plato's Theory of Knowledge is very interesting. He expresses this theory with three approaches: his allegory of The Cave, his metaphor of the Divided Line and his doctrine The Forms. Each theory is interconnected; one could not be without the other. Here we will explore how one relates to the other. In The Cave, Plato describes a vision of shackled prisoners seated in a dark cave facing the wall.
Analysis of Plato's Allegory of the Cave Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" presents a vision of humans as slaves chained in front of a fire observing the shadows of things on the cave wall in front of them. The shadows are the only "reality" the slaves know. Plato argues that there is a basic flaw in how we humans mistake our limited perceptions as reality, truth and goodness. The allegory reveals how that flaw affects our education, our spirituality and our politics. The flaw that Plato speaks about is trusting as real, what one sees - believing absolutely that what one sees is true.
Sometimes we leave in an illusion that sometime is hard believed when you see the reality. In the “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato represent an extended metaphor that is to contrast the way in which we perceive and believe in what is reality. Plato explains that allegory; the basic beliefs that all we perceive are imperfect reflections of the ultimate forms, which represent truth and reality. Plato in the “Allegory in the Cave” establishes a cave in which prisoners are chained down and forced to look upon the front wall of the cave. The Allegory of the cave may be viewed as a devastating criticism of our everyday lives as being in bondage to superficialities, to shadow rather than to the real world.
As the similarities are presentable by means of prisoners and actors alike being trapped in the cave or dreams, respectively, they both are limited to this capacity of truth and have trouble understanding whether or not the interpretations of some people’s idea in the noumenal realm is valid. To be able to continue mentioning Plato’s philosophy in modern day suggests how influential his work is since it still applies to the world today.
The cave is an underground chamber, the prisoners are chained and are only able to see shadows which are against the wall in front of them by a dimly lit fire, and there are shapes of vessels, statues, and figures of animals being carried to and from the inside of the cave. Being shackled into the darkness means the prisoners were safe when in the cave but once it was time to face the real world; there was pain coming from their eyes. Plato says, “And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellow prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them” (Plato 2). This means that the prisoners were not ready to make change by leaving the cave and facing the real world which is said in Douglass. It was important to leave the cave according to Plato and Douglass because it showed that they wanted to have a different life by finding new knowledge around them, and getting to know themselves when having freedom.
In “The Pit and the Pendulum”, the underground prison is dark; as a result, the character compares the place with hell or even his tomb. That is why at the beginning, during his dream-like state, he does not want to open his eyes and we do not know where he is either. The darkness makes the character struggle with the idea of trusting his senses or not. Also, he is afraid to discover more mean ways in which he may die. Poe creates a disgusting atmosphere for the setting.