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Comparing Allegory Of The Cave 'And The Truman Show'

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Abigail Jones Mr. G. Allain ENG4U4-B July 8, 2024 Comparison Essay between “Allegory of the Cave” and The Truman Show Truth is the work behind reality, backed with facts and knowledge rather than the imagined. The discovery of truth is a theme highly explored in both the narrative of “Allegory of the Cave” and The Truman Show. The “Allegory of the Cave,” written by Plato, is about a prisoner trapped in a cave his whole life, only ever perceiving a portion of the world. He is finally freed and comes to experience the truth behind all he has ever shown. The Truman Show, directed by Peter Weir, is about a man named Truman who lives in a controlled reality and environment, similar to the allegory and the cave. Truman slowly realizes the subtle, bizarre reiterations of his daily life and breaks free from them, revealing his world to be …show more content…

To begin, in both “Allegory in the Cave” and The Truman Show, protagonists and surrounding characters resist comprehending and acknowledging the truth. When the freed prisoner came back to tell the others about what he had seen and the truth, they did not believe him. “Wouldn’t he appear ridiculous? Men would say of him that he had gone up and had come back down with his eyesight ruined and that it was better not even to think of ascending.” (Plato, 2). The prisoners resist accepting what the protagonist sees as the truth due to their lack of knowledge and ignorance. Their world is entirely the projection and manipulation of the shadows. Their confinement and familiarity with the cave make it hard for them to comprehend and accept another reality. When Truman first saw the bizarre patterns in his world, he did not want to believe or accept

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In both of the cases, the author and the director used to method of symbolism to help them get their purpose across to the readers. Many objects in both of the stories were given a meaning and an assumed understanding of what it is symbolising. Shadows is something that is presented in both of the cases, in The Allegory of the Cave there were objects that walked past the fire behind the prisoners, which gave out shadows to the prisoners to see. The shadows represented the truth that was not allowed to be seen by the prisoners but was able to get a small sense of what it is. In The Truman Show, there was a character who played the role of the shadow for Truman.

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