Allegory of the Cave/Truman Show Analysis

Allegory of the Cave/Truman Show Limited Knowledge, truth (or revelation), reality, and idealism are some of the common themes expressed in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and the film “The Truman Show.” The differences can be found in the way Plato allows some of the prisoners to remain unknowing, by giving them an almost fear-like stance involving the truth of their world, and how to free themselves. Another is that the “false” world is created on different premises, either to create a safe an ideal environment, or merely to only allow the characters to think their world is ideal (both treat those involved like a science experiment). Both of these stories, however, have a similar plot in that they keep the subjects having very limited knowledge, living in an almost ideal world. These subjects are then meant to seek truth in the reality of life, rather than in what they experienced thus far throughout their lives. This could possibly be implying that you may only truly believe in reality if you’ve experienced an event firsthand, rather than by methods of learning similar to secondhand knowledge. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, the prisoners are kept chained to a wall, with only shadow puppets on the opposite wall to act as a representation of the “real” world. This will eventually cause the subjects to firmly believe that the limited experiences and knowledge they are allowed to have IS their real world. Due to the prisoners only being given select “life” showings, a feeling of restless desire for the truth is created. This in turn causes the escape of one prisoner into the light, or the actual world. This is another point where this Allegory varies from the film, because now to this escaped prisoner, the actual world, or reality, is the ideal world, because what is seen in the visible realm, with light to guide the senses, will undoubtedly represent all of the fantasies that are newly thought up in comparison to the old lifestyle. In the Truman Show, Truman