Inception And The Allegory Of The Cave Analysis

Inception and the Allegory of the Cave The movie “Inception” directly reflects Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. The idea that through a dream enlightenment becomes possible which directly relates to changing a way of thinking. The hero in the movie Cobb has demons to exercise from his former way of thinking In order to achieve his goal of “reality”. His sun or enlightenment is ridding himself of his wife Mal and showing himself the reality with Fisher. Mal represents the former way of thinking while clinging to an old ideas which the allegory of the cave people are stuck in the shadows of the cave. The cave dwellers and Mal only see a limited scope of the world and have a singular objective. Mal’s only objective is keeping Cobb in the dream …show more content…
The dreamer is lead through a series of dreams to come to a similar conclusion. The reality in the mind is not as rich and full as the true world. The dreamer is shown layered reality created by an architect who creates something while rooted in reality is not real. There is a pivotal scene in the move when they are abroad in a seedy looking dream den. The caretaker of the dream den says that the people are not there to dream, but they are there to be woken up. The Western ideology of self-awareness leads society towards enlightenment. This becomes reflected in the characters quest for reality. The dream is similar to Eastern ideals or philosophy which would rather fight in chaos or the old ways rather than going towards enlightenment. Eventually the dreamer can come to his own conclusion that they don’t live to dream but they dream to live. Just as someone who comes out of the cave and learns what the real world is comprised. Although it is painful and takes great effort the goal is to become enlightened or brought into the light of knowledge. The individual has to take a journey to help enlighten the