Compare And Contrast Essay: The Allegory Of The Cave

Plato died in 348 BC and yet his work lives on in the form of literature. A famous dialogue of Plato is “The Allegory of the Cave.” The story tells a tale of prisoners, prisoners who are chain up as children and forced to stare into the cave, into the darkness. Nothing but a fire flickers, casting shadows or grotesque shapes and objects. The prisoner’s minds run wild, with what these shadows could be, until one day, a prisoners is freed, dragged up to see what the real world has to offer him. This same storyline was brought back up in 1999, hollywood decided to make The Matrix. The Matrix takes the main character, Neo, for a wild ride. The beginning, Neo lives out his life as a computer hacker, however he does not know it but, he is in the …show more content…
First, when Neo finds Morpheus he is given a choice take a blue pill and “you wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want” or take the red pill and “stay in wonderland”(The Matrix). Neo chooses his destiny by taking the red pill. On the other hand, “The allegory of the Cave” the prisoner is not given a choice. He is “reluctantly dragged” (Plato 286) up out of the cave and into the real world. Also, in “The Allegory of the Cave” only one prisoner is released into freedom and the real world. In The Matrix, many characters know what the real world is. These differences give each story its own unique twist and style. Other similarities between The Matrix and “The Allegory of the Cave” is the figurative language used throughout the stories. One main similarity is the theme of both the stories. The themes of these two stories tie together because they are both saying humans don’t want to know change. They are complacent with what is going on and don’t want change. Another similarity with figurative language is the protagonists. The protagonist is the main character and as state earlier, they both are unaware of the world outside the one they live