The Sunset Limited Movie Analysis

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Essay #2: Blindness and Meaning in Life Harrison Fisher Metaphorical blindness is a common theme in writing and film because it’s a part of life that invokes change constantly. If we are blind to something, we can only see it’s existence from the outside, rather than truly understand it and know why it exists. Unfortunately, a lot of the aspects of life that cause blindness in this world will never be possible to fully understand. One question in particular has been debated for centuries; does the world has inherent meaning to it? “The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato (from his literary work “The Republic”) and the film “The Sunset Limited” by Tommy Lee Jones (originally a play written by Cormac McCarthy) explore the conflicting sides …show more content…

The movie takes place just after one of the main characters (referred to as White in the play) attempts to commit suicide by jumping in front of an oncoming train. The other character (known as Black) saves his life by pushing him out of the way, and takes him back to his apartment to see if he can help by talking to him. The two characters have a dialogue that lasts almost the entire film. Black starts off by trying to explain the Bible and why he believes in it to White. The whole time, White is very skeptical and unjaded by Blacks argument. White only believes what he sees and knows to be true; he doesn’t accept any other purpose in the world. When Black asks him what he believes in, he says “Cultural things, for instance books, music, art, things like that.” He goes on to say “The things I loved are very frail, very fragile. I didn’t know that, I thought they were indestructible; they …show more content…

They also both illustrate a story in which a character is blind to the world but ends up thinking they’ve found an answer. However, in “The Allegory of the Cave” the prisoner finds the world to be a beautiful and meaningful place, while in “The Sunset Limited”, Black begins to see the world as meaningless after he fails to save White. For a long time in my life, I believed that the world was inherently structured and ordered. However, in recent years I have strongly began to question that. Some people think that this country is ordered well, but saying the entire world is would be an ignorant claim. When we take a step back and look at the current state of the world, there are unending and unnecessary conflicts, deaths, and bloodshed. Even more evidence for a chaotic world can be found throughout the world’s history. Even though I believe that the world is a chaotic place, I also believe that meaning can be found amidst the disarray. Maybe this world is designed to be confusing and not fully understandable, so that every tension you endure is just a small event in a series of trials that is meant to test your conviction to your

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