Allegory Of The Cave Comparison

Words: 1286
Pages: 6
Open Document
A high school student sits in his history class and idly listens while the teacher drones on about Christopher Columbus. The student thought he already knew everything he needed to know: Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, he discovered America, and eventually the first Thanksgiving happened. Suddenly, the teacher starts to share new information that the boy had never heard and the teacher’s words pulled him out of his daydream. The new perspective she gave contradicted his past knowledge. Everything he had known before this time contained only lies. This same experience happened in both Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” and the popular movie The Matrix by Andy Wachowski. For years now, the two works have been compared and many come to the same conclusion. While The Matrix and “The Allegory of the Cave” posses differences such as the setting, point of view, and tone the similarities they share throughout their plot, characters, and symbols show that …show more content…
The Matrix starts with a scene of a metatropolis area in 1999. As the movie progresses and the story takes off, the setting changes to fake worlds within The Matrix and the hovercraft “Nebuchadnezzar.” Most of the story takes place in a completely futuristic setting. Eventually, viewers are giving a scene showing what the world has come to after the Artificial Intelligence (AI) took over. While reading “The Allegory of the Cave” an image of Plato giving a lecture to a student, Glaucon, appears in the reader’s head. Not only is the overall setting different, but the setting of the story Plato tells differs as well. Plato does an outstanding job of setting a scene of “... human beings living in an underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light… have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move… Above and behind them a fire is blazing…” (Plato 284) This is entirely different setting than a dystopian world that The Matrix
Show More

Related Documents: Allegory Of The Cave Comparison

Allegory Cave Comparison Essay

I have chosen to compare the Allegory Cave to The Madman for two reasons. The first being given with a set of quotes. To begin with, this section of the Allegory Cave is a perfect example of what the “madman’s” experience was with the towns people. Even the very act of him being called such a name shows us the similarity. “And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the cave, while his sight was still weak, and before…

Words 602 - Pages 3

Comparison of the Matrix and the Allegory of the Cave Essay

The Matrix and the Allegory of the Cave What if one were living through life completely bound and facing a reality that doesn't even exist? The prisoners in Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" are blind from true reality as well as the people in the movie The Matrix. They are given false images and they accept what their senses are telling them. They believe what they are experiencing is not all that really exists. Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher wrote "The Allegory of the Cave," to explain the…

Words 1240 - Pages 5

Allegory Of The Cave Analysis

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is a great piece of writing that serves as something very obvious; a dramatic comparison of what is reality and what we perceive to be reality. Although this is the case, some components of “Allegory of the Cave” cannot be identified as easy as the extended metaphor presented throughout the reading. One component that needs extra analyzing to identify is the allegory of the story, or its philosophical messages. Another component not easily identified is the frictional…

Words 1427 - Pages 6

Symbolism In The Allegory Of The Cave

the Sun, Cave and Journey between Two Allegories Individuals will not know whether the life they are being presented with is the truth or a lie in which we are obligated to survive in. The reality in which each individual is living in probably seems like the truth but how do we really know whether it is the truth or what is shown. How does one know whether the reality seen or believed in is the true reality or what is being shown to the individual? The different symbols in the allegories are the…

Words 1821 - Pages 8

Allegory Of The Cave By Dr. Seuss: A Literary Analysis

stick with familiarity and comfort. When it comes to trying new things, people are reluctant as they don't know what the outcome will be. In Plato's, "Allegory of the Cave. " and "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Seuss, these two author both point out the flaws in humans, calling out people for being stubborn. However, while these authors both use an allegory for people's unwillingness to try new things, they send completely different messages. Both Plato and Dr. Seuss remark on the stubborn behavior of people…

Words 650 - Pages 3

Allegory Of The Cave Ap Language

Allegory of the Cave AP Language and Composition Plato’s universally revered, “The Allegory of the Cave,” tells the tale of a conversation between Socrates and Glaucon, his noble student, providing a deep understanding of the imprisonment of the ignorant, and struggles of the enlightened. Biographically, Plato is influenced from his prior teacher, Socrates, who had a major part in the creation and impact of this allegory. An allegory is a story or poem that conveys a hidden and deeper meaning…

Words 812 - Pages 4

Knowledge and Plato Essay

Nile Ross Dr. Mok Topics of Literature October 23, 2014 Critical Response to Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” An allegory is a poem, story, or piece of art that has a hidden message or meaning contained within. Normally an allegory has either a moral or political message. Within the Allegory of the Cave, Plato presents a moral message. The moral message shows how civilization is blind to adjust and grow both intelligently and ethically; that contains us as a group and individuals. I believe that…

Words 1052 - Pages 5

Contrating Plato and Aristotle Essay

snwboarder on Oct 27, 2011 This essay examines Aristotle’s and Plato’s theories of ethics, and briefly compares them. Classical Theories of Ethics – Outline I Introduction II Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics III Plato’s Republic IV Brief Comparison V Conclusion Classical Theories of Ethics I Introduction The study of ethics takes us all the way back to classical Greece. Since it does, I thought it might be useful to compare “classical” theories from truly classical figures. Thus…

Words 978 - Pages 4

Comparing Plato, Descartes, And The Matrix

this very subject and it still is a topic of debate. The topic of Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave and Descartes’s Meditation I of The Things Which We May Doubt in comparison to the movie The Matrix addresses this topic of real or imagined. The similarity among all of the passages that seems to stand out is the question of what is considered reality. The sense of reality displayed in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is warped. The shadows appear to be real to the…

Words 911 - Pages 4

Ignorance In Allegory Of The Cave And Oedipus The King

knowledge: the light referring to the ignorance and the dark referring to knowledge. Ignorance is defined as, “the lack of knowledge or information.” The themes of “dark and light” relate to “ignorance and knowledge,” and appear in the ancient works Allegory of the Cave, Genesis, Matthew, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and Oedipus the King. The irony starts to appear in Oedipus and the King when we meet Tiresias. He is a physically blind man; however he is very knowledgeable about Oedipus and his past, present,…

Words 1082 - Pages 5