Compare The Matrix And The Allegory Of The Cave

Perhaps the most famous writings in Plato’s The Republic is the allegory of the cave. In the allegory of the cave, prisoners since birth stand tied up as they stare at the shadows of what looks to be human beings like them on the wall. Because they cannot see outside or turn their heads towards each other, they perceive these shadows as reality and therefore truth because that’s all they’ve ever known. There cannot be anything beyond that which they have seen. They don’t have the experience or the capacity to realize that these are just shadows and not actual people walking along the cave wall. They are ignorant of what’s really out there until one of the prisoners breaks free from the bondage and ventures to the outside. After adjusting to …show more content…
In The Matrix, Neo is living in what he believes is a true reality because it’s so unbelievably vast and doesn’t often show signs of falsity and when it does, for example when we experience déjà vu, it’s common to shrug it off like it’s some strange trick of the mind. Neo is a special case because he is having trouble accepting that this world is the real truth. This is what distinguished him from the rest of the world, making him “The One”.
The Matrix and the allegory of the cave bring up many different questions, one being whether it is better to be knowledgeable or ignorant. The famous writer and mythologist, Joseph Campbell has a tagline “ignorance is bliss” and for many, this is an acceptable motto to live by. However, another tagline exists, which is lived by just as often which is “the unexamined life is not worth living”. These bring up two opposite opinions, and due to the idea of existentialism, either one can be accepted as the truth. On one hand, there is a certain beauty to ignorance. Each human being was ignorant at birth, but the moment we’re out of the womb, we consistently have new experiences and learn new