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Plato's Cave And Pleasantville Comparison Essay

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Plato's Cave and Pleasantville Comparison
In the Allegory of the Cave, prisoner's are chained in a dark cave and they are restricted to only see the wall in front of them. Behind them, there is a fire which allows shadows to appear on the wall in front of the prisoner's. Those shadows are the only kind of perception the prisoners have about reality. The little knowledge they have from the shadows has lead them to believe that shadows are the only reality of the world they live in. Plato's theory of knowledge signifies that this form of knowledge about the shadows is the lowest possible form of knowledge as the prisoners are unaware of the world outside of the cave. Outside of the cave, there is light and everything is clearly visible; it …show more content…
The film Pleasantville depicted in black and white represents the cave as an empty place composed of extremely little knowledge, while colour represents the world of enlightenment beyond the cave. Before David and Jennifer become Bud and Mary Sue, everything in Pleasantville is seen to be perfect. Everyone lives their day-to-day lives without any problems. They live a life of safety, happiness, but also ignorance, representing the cave in the Allegory of the Cave. For example, For example, nothing could catch on fire, the responsibility of a firefighter was only to rescue cats out of trees, and the basketball team Bud and Skip were on always won. Outside of Pleasantville, where David and Jennifer come from, there was disorder and unhappiness as he is viewed as the typical "loser" at school who is unhappy with his life, while his sister, Jennifer, is a promiscuous teen that only cares about becoming popular. These scenes in the movie are portrayed in colour to represent the world outside the cave, which is the reality of life itself. There are objects, sunlight, and people are aware of the truth. According to Plato's theory of knowledge, the people that live outside of Pleasantville have the highest form of knowledge as they are

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