ipl-logo

Comparing Plato's Allegory Of The Cave And The Truman Show

840 Words4 Pages

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and The Truman Show Midterm Movie Paper The “Allegory of the Cave” and “The Truman Show” is a representation of humans believing what they see in front of them is the only truth that they know. The Allegory of the Cave is an ancient knowledgeable philosophical work made by the Greek philosopher, Plato. He emphasizes the significance of humans achieving wisdom, intellectual insight, knowledge and education as a metaphor in his story (Plato, 246-249). For Plato, education is a “turning around” of the soul (Plato, 248). The Truman Show is a modern movie with a similar plot directed and written by Peter Weir. In these stories, humans are visible in an alternate reality that is displayed to them unwillingly. There are countless philosophical concepts and arguments that take place in The Truman Show and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. The Truman Show and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave differs with visual images, plot elements, storyline, and dialogue and …show more content…

Plato’s and Peter Weir’s main concept is that people see reality as the visible world when reality is more than just the visible world. In both stories, they only knew what they were being tricked into believing. They would throw hardships at them whenever they were about to find out the truth. For Plato, education is a turning around of the soul (Plato, 248). As the master creator Chrystoff says, "We accept the reality of world with which we are presented" (Niccol 1998). In both stories, there are more than one realities, there can even be infinite realities. Both relate to the divided line theory and the theory of forms. The Truman Show and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave both raise many questions relating to the basis of human existence. Reality is much more than just the visible world in both stories. They are both symbols for contrasts between ideas and what humans see as

Show More
Related

Similarities Between The Allegory Of The Cave And The Truman Show

383 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More

Similarities Between The Truman Show And The Allegory Of The Cave

1112 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More

Comparing Plato's Allegory Of The Cave And Stranger Than Fiction

1140 Words | 5 Pages

Just like the prisoner of the Cave, Harold Crick breaks free from his chains of naivety and widens his vision to become truly enlightened. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave the prisoners are described as being “chained so they cannot move, and can only see before them” (Plato 1). These chains are notable not only because they are the restriction that keeps the people

Read More

De Mille's Allegory To The Cave

1987 Words | 8 Pages

James De Mille’s A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder is a tale of two complex interplaying narratives that De Mille uses to portray the critical shortcomings of several of the readers. Fundamental to De Mille’s critique is the use of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, wherein Plato alludes to three individuals chained inside a dark cavern deeming the shadows of passing objects as real, until one of them is released and realizes the outside world as real, albeit the remaining prisoners are hostile to this change in philosophy (Plato 317-20). Plato uses this image as an allegory to members of society being too comfortable in their ignorance and hostile towards matters that might challenge their perceptions of the world; in turn, never breaking from the figurative shackles of society (Plato 317-20). Hence, by analyzing the limitations of the readers Adam More, Lord Featherstone, Oxenden and Congreve, and Melick it will be clear that De Mille’s depicts several unskilled readers to satirize our views of the world through the use of Plato’s Allegory to the Cave in order to demonstrate what constitutes as a good reader from him.

Read More

Compare And Contrast The Truman Show And The Allegory Of The Cave

1373 Words | 6 Pages

In life, the world one lives in is always assumed to be the reality, without anyone questioning its credibility. As Iris Murdoch once said, “[People] live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality. ”(Iris Murdoch Quotes). In The Allegory of the Cave by Plato, prisoners are trapped in a cave and chained so that they are to face a wall and only see the shadows of objects that pass behind them.

Read More

Plato's Republic: The Allegory Of The Cave

1771 Words | 8 Pages

The allegory of the cave first published in Platos Republic was retold in Cottingham text and discussed in Class. An allegory is a story used to reveal a hidden meaning. Plato’s hidden meaning revolves around reality, the perception of reality the perception of truth. Plato paints a picture of humans being captive in a cave, bound in a manner where that cannot move and can only see what is before them and what is before them is the cave wall.

Read More

Plato's Allegory Of The Cave Analysis

782 Words | 4 Pages

Plato, a well-known mathematician and a central figure in philosophy, laid the foundation stones of Western Philosophy (along with Socrates and Aristotle). Alfred North Whitehead once said, “the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.” Plato realises that in general, humanity can go on leading a life which is greatly understood. For example, he finds truth in his world of forms and thinks that the general populace can think, and speak, and may not even acknowledge any awareness of Plato’s world of forms. He explains his thoughts in the Allegory of The Cave which is presented as a fictional dialogue between Socrates and Plato’s brother.

Read More

Summary Of Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

449 Words | 2 Pages

Of all of his works, one of Plato’s most famous is The Republic, which is a lengthy book that covers outlines several different societal aspects such as, the ideal form of government, the acquisition of wisdom, and the definition of justice. These are all lofty goals as each of the aforementioned categories could be considered subjective, as each person could find a different form of government to be ideal, or have a different opinion of what justice is to them. One of the most famous chapters from The Republic is commonly known as “The Allegory of the Cave,” in which Socrate’s shows Glaucon the effects of education. Plato outlines the process of education through the tale of a group of prisoners that for the entirety of their existence have

Read More

The Truman Show: Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

610 Words | 3 Pages

The Truman show is a movie that’s plot is based off the republic by Plato, written in 360 B.C.E. The Truman show is about a man who’s lived his entire life in a fictional town that is actually a TV show set. He does not know that his life is a TV show but he starts to learn the truth throughout the movie. Although Peter Weir reuses the idea of a cave were stuck in and that the truth is hard to realize from Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, the transformation of the truth being much more than what we perceive and getting yourself out of your cave ultimately leads to a deeper truth that is as philosophically compelling. As Plato writes, “Human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood” meaning that literally, people are trapped in a cave. This is directly used the Truman show, as the TV show set is the cave that Truman in chained in.

Read More

The Cave: The Allegory Of The Cave

1800 Words | 8 Pages

The Allegory of The Cave In the allegory Plato is trying to tell us is that in life we think we know what reality is because of what we see, but what if that is all an illusion? We are never going to be able to see the real things if we are kept inside a box, in this case inside a cave. We got to step out of the cave, our comfort zone. And when we finally step out we will be able to see the real world, we will have a panoramic view.

Read More

The Nature Of Reality In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

728 Words | 3 Pages

The state of most human beings is depicted in this myth of the cave and the tale of a thrilling exit from the cave is the source of true understanding. Plato has portrayed the concept of reality and illusion through the allegory of the cave. One of Socrates' and also of Plato's, chief ideas was that of forms, which explains that the world is made up of reflections of more perfect and ideal forms. In the Cave

Read More

Allegory Of The Cave Essay

593 Words | 3 Pages

The difference between reality and ones conception of reality is hard to differentiate. Not until one questions with thought, seeing all forms of the world can they truly understand. Crossing the line of the empirical world and the world of forms is hard to grasp when shadows are reality. This concept of crossing over is explored by Plato as he describes the story of “The allegory of the cave”. Born into an empirical world full of shadows from a fire and chains to hold these children in their chairs, there are no other forms than what they see.

Read More

An Analysis Of Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

1157 Words | 5 Pages

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave Plato was a protégé of Socrates and an idealist philosopher during the classical Greek period that helped to form the base of philosophy as is known in today’s western world. He formed his own ideology called “Platonic Idealism” which is the idea that the visible world is not the most real form of reality placing the truest form of reality on unchanging, eternal and objectively existing forms. Plato often wrote allegories to express his world view and to allow his audience to realize Plato’s ideas on their own terms. Plato wrote the myth of the cave to show through metaphor and allegory how an ordinary person can gain enlightenment, become a philosopher and attempt to teach others of this knowledge.

Read More

Summary Of Plato's Cave

1218 Words | 5 Pages

Plato was an Athenian philosopher, who founded the first academic institution in the western world, the academy and is well-known for paving the path for philosophy in western traditions. He was a student of Socrates’ and often used Socrates in the discussions of his dialogues, the myth of the cave being one of them. Plato was a believer of idealism. He believed that immaterial qualities are more real than empirical objects, which we can feel, see, and touch. In the myth of the cave, Plato paints us a picture of how we can be easily fooled by our senses, and of our original perceptions of the world.

Read More

Human Nature In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

1159 Words | 5 Pages

In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave the people think that their entire reality is the shadows that they see on the walls of the cave. Plato explores the truth and criticizes that humanity does not question what is real. Plato explores that the human understanding and accepting of what is real is difficult and

Read More

More about Comparing Plato's Allegory Of The Cave And The Truman Show

Related Topics

Open Document