Similarities Between The Truman Show And The Allegory Of The Cave

Irrelevance. This word hopefully comes to mind when discussing the involvement of Ayn Rand’s Anthem in the infamous “lightbulb controversy.” The book may include some aspects of the attempt to pass the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, because trying to take away the right of choice for a company will naturally spark up thoughts about individualism, thus bringing up Ayn Rand and her ideas. However, her unique political views bring up multiple controversial topics, connect very little to the main subject, and are only made to appear worse when used incorrectly by people like Paul Rand. Any mention of Ayn Rand or any of her objectivist ideas will not go unnoticed.

The real truth was part of both the stories, in The Allegory of the Cave, the truth was hidden from the prisoners since they were born this was done by holding them back by using chains so they cannot see the rest of the world. After one of the prisoners was allowed to leave by finally being free from the chains he found the truth very hurtful to himself. Likewise, in the story of The Truman Show, Truman was also hidden from the truth, similar to the prisoners, Truman was also not allowed to see the truth from the moment he was born. Truman was forced to be in a controlled world, without a choice, and was not allowed to leave it, Truman did not know he was living in this world, until he finally got the chance to escape, and similarly to the prisoner, he was also hurt by finding out the truth as he had to go through so much to get to the end of it. The audience in the real world, have not ever been held back from such a truth such as their life was actually a lie, therefore the audience has to use their minds to help them since past experience does not help them and using imagination they can understand the book

There is a lot of talk about illusion versus reality. Many people believe that we are all living in some sort of dream and that this is all an illusion and that we are not in a reality. In the two works Plato’s Allegory of the Cave by Jeff Stickney, and the movie The Truman Show, 1999, directed by Peter Weir, both show the same concept of illusion versus reality through similarities and differences through the setting, the plot, and the display of characters. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave by Jeff Stickney and The Truman Show by Peter Weir, a huge point of comparison which shows the differences in both works is the setting.

In life, the world one lives in is always assumed to be the reality, without anyone questioning its credibility. As Iris Murdoch once said, “[People] live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality. ”(Iris Murdoch Quotes). In The Allegory of the Cave by Plato, prisoners are trapped in a cave and chained so that they are to face a wall and only see the shadows of objects that pass behind them.

Throughout history humans have looked upon light as a symbol of truth and their source of hope and strength. Ayn Rand uses the light as a symbol of truth in her book Anthem. The main character, Equality lives in a dark society where he symbolizes the light. His rebellious nature and discovery of the electric lightbulb makes him an outcast which leads to his discovery of egoism, an idea that had become extinct and outlawed. Ayn Rand uses Equality’s discovery of light and his relationship with the rest of society to help readers infer the light’s symbolic meaning as the truth of egoism, a truth that cannot be destroyed.

Our definition of happiness has drastically evolved. With artificial poignant grins, the so called “happy” people float around the realm of ambiguity and confusion. The Western world’s modern has an inconsistency with the definition of happiness. It is difficult to precisely map out a path. There are twists and turns to get to the destination, all too confusing to comprehend.

In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave the people think that their entire reality is the shadows that they see on the walls of the cave. Plato explores the truth and criticizes that humanity does not question what is real. Plato explores that the human understanding and accepting of what is real is difficult and

The theme of limited information and perspective is exemplified in Plato's Allegory of the Cave, in which prisoners are confined to a cave and can only see shadows on the wall. “To them,” Plato writes, “the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images”. (Plato, The Allegory of the Cave, Line 13). This quote refers to the prisoners in the cave who are only able to see the shadows of objects passing in front of a fire, which they take to be truth. These shadows are the only reality that the prisoners know, as they are physically restrained by chains and unable to turn their heads to see outside of the cave.

Red Pill: Truth The truth may hurt for a moment, but a lie will hurt forever. People that don’t accept or want the truth don’t want their dreams and illusions destroyed. The protagonists in the movies “The Matrix” and the “The Truman Show” figure out who they truly are and perhaps their purpose in life because they chose to discover it rather than accepting what they believed wasn’t reality.

In Anthem & Fahrenheit 451 there is a symbol of light. This symbol could mean from a wide range of different things, but it means the same exact thing in both books. In the books, light means knowledge and it means it in the same exact way. Whenever each character is alone and away from a lot of people there is a appearance of light. In Anthem it was when Equality created something alone and in Fahrenheit 451 it was when the electricity went out and he was alone.

7_Hunter_Determination Our society today consists mostly of a bevy of childish adults wanting to achieve their goals without hard work and expecting life to be handed to them on a silver platter. Are you one of them? Will you instead be rigorously determined to carry out whatever it is you are supporting? We must ask ourselves what the true definition of determination is.

Compare and Contrast Paper Imagine that you were in a TV show that you didn’t even know you were in,everyone in the world can see what you are doing 24/7,like spyers and stalkers watching you all the time about what you are doing with your life and how you are living it… Now imagine that you lived in a perfect community where there was no colors,no fears,same procedure every day,you looked like everyone else, and you receive these memories that no one but you and one other person gets... How would you feel?

The Truman Show directed by Peter Weir, in 1998, is a story within a story about a man who does not know his life is a reality television show. This film comments on the effects reality television has on society and exemplifies the stupidity of society obsessing over others. It shows how people can be grasped by an overall meaningless thing. Through voyeurism and narcissism Weir comments on how reality television has consumed people and they have forgotten to take time for themselves.

In my opinion, everyone sees reality differently from his or her perspective. Just like Plato believed, there are two different worlds that people can view their reality from with that either being the “real” world or “virtual” world. I believe the cave represents how people see life and when they escape the cave that is the actual reality of life. No one knows if we are experiencing actual reality or if we are being ran by a computer. Even though everyone has a different definition for knowledge, the overall explanation for knowledge is learning through facts or experience.

Searching for the truth is very challenging, as the world today entrenched in lies. Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” briefly tells a story about cavemen being chained on most parts of their body, restring all movement including their head, since childhood. Then, he discussed the consequences inflicted onto the cavemen, specifically their perspective towards the truth after being chained for a long period of time in the dark cave, which resembles many events occurring in a person’s daily life. Based on the discussed effects, the author argues that human beings should always seek the real meaning of truth.