Similarities Between The Allegory Of The Cave And The Truman Show

There is a lot of talk about illusion versus reality. Many people believe that we are all living in some sort of dream and that this is all an illusion and that we are not in a reality. In the two works Plato’s Allegory of the Cave by Jeff Stickney, and the movie The Truman Show, 1999, directed by Peter Weir, both show the same concept of illusion versus reality through similarities and differences through the setting, the plot, and the display of characters.

In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave by Jeff Stickney and The Truman Show by Peter Weir, a huge point of comparison which shows the differences in both works is the setting. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave it states; “They have been there since childhood and have their legs and necks chained

As a result of this Truman heads out towards sea on a boat which he feared his entire life due to the tragic death of his father which turned out to be a fake. But Truman faces his fears and heads out to sea to go to Fiji and in doing this he hits the dome wall with the boat (the end of the set). On the path of Truman getting to the edge of the dome the director of the show puts Truman through all sorts of hell to attempt to make Truman not find out the truth about his fake reality his fake world. The director orders all sorts of different environmental changes on the island to prevent Truman from escaping, such as huge tidal waves which lead to Truman’s boat flipping over, lightning, extreme speeds of wind and a terrifying storm, (Weir,1999). This example from the movie proves a lot in how the two works are both very similar and different at the same time. This specific example shows the viewers that Truman was similarly just like the prisoners in the cave who were living in a contained space and trapped in a fake reality. For the prisoners it was the cave which was their fake reality and for Truman it was the dome the island which he lived on. The director of the Truman show did not let Truman go until the very end after negotiating did not work and Truman forced himself and the directors to let him leave, this compares to the prisoners because just like Truman they were also not released until very late on in their lives and in which not all of them

The setting in both works had fair differences with how the entire physical environment of both works were not similar to each other since Truman lived on an island inside a dome which gave the viewers a happy mood as opposed to the prisoner who lived in a cave which is all dark and gives the readers a depressing mood. Both works showed similarities in two different points. One in the plot, and the second in the characters. The plot in both Plato’s Allegory of the Cave by Jeff Stickney, and the movie The Truman Show by Peter Weir mirrored each other because both developed slowly over time and gave either the reader or viewers a suspense feeling as they went along both works wondering if both the characters would ever find out the truth and see figure out that they are living in an illusion as compared to a reality and would they ever be broken from this controlled setting which they both lived in. Would they ever be free? This ties in with the last point on the characters. Both Truman and the prisoner were stripped of their freedom at an early age. They did not really have an option if they wanted to live where they were living or not. They were both forced to stay there until later on near the end