“To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s.” Dostoevsky’s quote from Crime and Punishment declares that continuing our own journey, although may not be deemed correct by others, holds higher value than to lose sight of who you are. Rejecting conformity requires an individual to have indisputable trust for themselves in order to persevere through any doubt they may have as they fight against the current. In the film The Matrix, directed by Lily and Lana Wachowski, we embark on Neo’s journey as he learns to have faith in his beliefs surrounding the world around him. He must digest that his perception of living and life is a fabrication, as the great responsibility of saving the human race shoulders him. The hardest …show more content…
He must reject everything he’s ever known about the manufactured world he’s lived in his entire life before he can even begin to understand his true potential. We see this is evident when the agents were swarming his workplace in search of him, and through Morpheus’s guidance Neo was bordering his escape. However, the issue arose when it came for Neo to cross the scaffold. He was, of course, petrified. With Morpheus ending his phone call “...you take a chance either way, I leave it to you…” he makes an endeavor to climb across the scaffold in order to reach the roof; however his doubt causes him to return and be taken in by the agents. We get an image of his self perception through his simple line: “I can’t do this.” In addition to this, the trauma induced by the agents in the following scene – while effectively distresses both Neo and the viewer – also succeeds in giving Neo a taste of what is possible. It fires every electron in his ravenous mind to seek more. The desire overrides him completely. In that moment he is willing to unlearn all the confinements he’s ever known, despite not even understanding what restricts him. Neo’s willingness to delve in what the Matrix is, allows for him to sliver by the chains his worldview was previously constricted …show more content…
Like a baby Neo must now observe and adapt to the new reality surrounding him. The rebirth scene which had Neo completely hairless, covered in a slightly viscous liquid, and had metal pipes – one in particular resembling an umbilical cord – fused to him was immediately followed by the crew taking him in and placing him in a ward. This is a clear reference to how premature babies have to spend time in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) after they are born, because they did not spend enough time in the womb; they were not ready yet. The significance of this brief moment shows that perhaps Neo was not ready to face the real world. Rather than being too young, he was too old “...the mind has trouble letting go…” and hence had spent too long in the Matrix. In addition to this, when Morpheus explained how the machines kept the humans in control, Neo could not face the reality “...I want out!” and had to leave the simulation before fainting. In spite of that, the authentic passion Neo has is able to propel him into training. Neo’s first failure occurs when he is to jump from one building to another. We learn that the entire crew of the Nebuchadnezzar had fallen the first time through Cypher’s quote “Everyone falls the first time.” Yet it is clear that it was expected as the one, Neo should’ve been able to make the leap.