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The Matrix And Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

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The Matrix And Plato's Allegory Of The Cave
Imagine realizing that all of what we know, knew or experienced was an artificially created belief. This is the idea that the movie Matrix, with its main character Neo, and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, with the slaves, try to present as they question our perception of reality. In both publications, human beings live their lives experiencing what for them is reality until some of them are able to see reality and realize that all their lives were based on illusions. The Matrix and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave are very similar for both involve men who live unreal lives that are controlled by other beings and who, upon perceiving this, initially reject the truth yet finally manage to accept it and try to present it to other persons. At first, …show more content…
One day, Neo meets Morpheus and when asked if he wants to know the truth about his life, decides to accompany him and hence leave the Matrix. Neo wakes up in a place full of mechanical pods where human beings are connected to cables. He is then released from the pod and transferred through pipes until he is rescued by Morpheus’ vessel. This senses are disrupted when he leaves the Matrix and this is why Neo has trouble seeing at first. In the same manner, the slave is released from the chains by his captor and exposed to the real world. While being taken away from his chains and towards the exit of the cave, the slave sees that apparatus that had formed his reality for such a long time; he sees the chains that had held him, he sees the origins of the shadows and the sounds. He has trouble accepting this, for it is much easier for him to continue believing what he has always believed. Regardless of this he is taken outside and sees the sunlight. At first he is dazzled; the light blinds him and distorts his senses. The slave has trouble adapting to a world so different to the one that he had become accustomed to. In essence, both men are removed from their fake realities and forced to digest the truth about their lives and to experience the real
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