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The Virtue In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

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Modern day society is riddled with flaws and inequality. It becomes even harder to fix these problems when the one suffering do not know that they are enslaved. This situation has been explored for as far back as 450 BC. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato represented this with an allegory. A movie was produced to try and capture this human fault, called “The Truman Show”. The movie details the process of one man's ascent from ignorance to being awaken. Many parallels can be drawn from his world to ours. The perpetual cycle that we are born into is way more prevalent and easy to find in “The Truman Show”, but that same cycle is the reality that we part of. In the Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave”, he describes a situation where individuals’ …show more content…

After telling of how the cave is set up, Plato gives a theoretical situation for the people chained within the caves pit’s. The men who were formerly chained within the dark confines now have the freedom to ascend. Plato argues that most men will be content with their situation within the cave; as it is familiar and therefore comforting. However, a few individual will always choose to enlighten themselves. When these individuals do see the sun, the brightness and heat will cause them to long for the dark, damp, security of their cave. They will benefit nothing from being above ground and eventually return to the cave. Upon their return, it is inevitable that they are shunned from their comrades. When these individuals attempt to enlighten their comrades, their anecdotes and teachings will be rejected. This is all to say that the truman show is a prime example of the Allegory of the Cave and the allegory is a prime example of how “real life” society works. This segment of the allegory is the bridging piece from Truman's world to ours. We often think that somehow we’re special; that we possess more awareness than others. However, just like in Truman’s universe, you never know your sleep until you wake up. And many times times sleep is the relaxing and comfortable reality we choose to inhabit. The Truman show simply created a

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