Similarities Between The Truman Show And The Allegory Of The Cave

What you see can be altered by what you know. Authors fabricate and establish selective truths in their pieces,such as novels, films and poems this is shown by the director, Peter Weir,with The Truman Show, Author Ayn Rand’s Anthem and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. They conveyed this through the use of figurative language such as irony, symbolism and metaphors. Together they bring the larger idea that oppression creates a new truth, which means there isn’t one truth but multiple, therefore the truth does not exist. To begin, oppression creates truth. In the Allegory of the Cave by Plato the people who can only see shadows create their own version of the truth based on what they know, “To them [the people stuck in the cave unable to move],’

It is all they have ever known so they have no way to disprove that what they see is in fact fake because for them there is nothing more, the shadows is all they know. There is no world outside of the shadows. That of course means that although the people in the cave are oppressed they still have their own version of the truth that they created and that they find right based on the things they actually know. The people’s sight cause them to look at one thing and see another based on their perspective but those who have been beyond the shadows see something else. Irony which is a special kind of contrast between appearance and reality-usually one in which reality is the opposite of what it seems, was used in the following line from the quote above the truth would

In Rand’s Anthem, the main character, Equality has a different idea of what is needed for the society while everyone else disagrees. This means that Equality see a different version of the truth of what people need than the rest of his society, “Let us throw away our candles and our torches. Let us flood our cities with light. Let us bring a new light to men!” (Rand 19) Equality, the main character brings to the council of his society something he believe will help everyone. When he does the council is outraged with the new knowledge and declares it and him a threat to society. Although Equality sees the light as knowledge and a way to evolve and become better people, his elders see the light as a plot to separate everyone in society rather than unite them. His version of what can help the society is different from the society’s which means he has a totally different version of truth from them. In this quote the light could be seen as a form of symbolism which is a person, a place, an object, or an activity that stands for something beyond itself. The light in this text can represent the knowledge that the main character, Equality poses and how he wishes to share this knowledge with the people. Since I can infer this based on a single word is quite peculiar but I must admit that it works wonderfully in allowing the reader to understand how Equality feels about his discovery and what it gives