The Sunset Limited By Cormac Mccarthy

Does happiness equal freedom, or is it just the ability to question? In the play The Sunset Limited by Cormac McCarthy, there are two characters, Black, an ex-convict and Christian who prevented White (an atheist professor) from committing suicide by saving him from an oncoming train. They then indulge in a conversation addressing life, faith and happiness. Throughout the conversation, we see themes of perception and reality that are similarly consistent throughout Plato’s, Allegory of the Cave. Where Plato presents a hypothetical scenario in which prisoners are enclosed in a dark cave since they were born and their bodies are positioned so that they can only see shadows on the wall in front of them, they perceive these as reality because they

Such as the idea that no God exists. So, by having these beliefs that anchor him, he is able to achieve his version of freedom by being happy. However, to others, this is not an example of freedom because Blacks are only looking forward in one direction, as they say in the allegory. Leading up to this moment, Black has been pointing out truths to White about his existence and the factors that have led up to the way White sees life. “The light is all around you, except you don’t see anything but shadows. And the shadow is you. You are the one making it.” (McCarthy, 50) Black describes exactly how White views his life. In my opinion, one way to view someone as a freed prisoner is the extent of their happiness and Black seems to be very content with life, unlike White. White has the inability to see the truth of his existence much like the prisoners in the Allegory of the Cave who mistake shadows for