Comparative Analysis: The Truman Show and Plato’s Allegory A comparative analysis, according to Reference, is defined as: “a study that compares and contrasts two things. The study can be done to find the crucial differences between two very similar things or the similarities between two things that appear to be different on the surface”. The Truman Show and Plato’s Allegory share multiple similarities, despite being written during different time periods. Although the storylines differ, there are several points throughout these pieces of work that can be compared. The first concept both share is the philosophy that humans accept the reality that is presented to them. In Plato’s allegory, three prisoners are chained and unable to see behind themselves. With a fire roaring in the cave, the prisoners see only the shadows of those passing by. The story then explains that if a prisoner were to escape, he would be unable to see because the sun would be too bright outside the cave. But, when adjusted to the sun, the prisoner can see the world as it truly is, not just as the shadows in the cave. Plato begins to explain that if the prisoner returned to the cave to explain what he saw to the other prisoners, they would simply not believe him. Truman, lives in …show more content…
In “Plato’s Allegory of the Cave”, Socrates writes “Would not the one dragged like this feel, in the process, pain and rage?”. This statement correlates to the scene where Truman attempts to leave Seaside with his wife. Truman is recklessly driving, acting ludacris, and making any attempt to leave the only world he is familiar with. Although, with the crew of the show becoming aware of his antics, they do everything possible to keep Truman from leaving. The outlandish incidents that occur to keep Truman make him behave in an outaged and lunatic way again, as he is confused and attempting to uncover the
Everyone have their own way to understand this world. In the poem “The Lady of Shalott” written by Alfred Lord Tennyson and in the story “The allegory of the cave” written by Plato, Although the lady of Shalott and the people who were stranded in the cave have the same situation, but they made different decisions. In the poem “ The lady of Shalott”, Shalott is cursed and the curse is she will die if she go to the outside of the towel. The cruse make she has to stay in the towel and the only way which make she get information about outside world is the mirror.
In both of the cases, the author and the director used to method of symbolism to help them get their purpose across to the readers. Many objects in both of the stories were given a meaning and an assumed understanding of what it is symbolising. Shadows is something that is presented in both of the cases, in The Allegory of the Cave there were objects that walked past the fire behind the prisoners, which gave out shadows to the prisoners to see. The shadows represented the truth that was not allowed to be seen by the prisoners but was able to get a small sense of what it is. In The Truman Show, there was a character who played the role of the shadow for Truman.
Both characters, Montag and Truman, relate with many similarities in realizing the society they’re in and the wrong in it.
I will also discuss how they all express Plato’s conception of what is involved in living philosophically, and how they all relate to the cave allegory. In Plato’s dialogue, the cave allegory, I am given a story about a prisoner and allowed to depict an image of what the cave looks like. Inside the cave are prisoners, a fire, a rocky path, and people who carried various artifacts that project shadows on the wall in front of the prisoners. The fire represents the sun, the rocky path symbolizes the journey of the soul, the prisoners represent us, the shadows were what they believed to be the truth, the people carrying the artifacts symbolize influences in life for example parents or teachers.
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
In these texts the protagonists begin their transformations in the beginning of their lives. Truman’s life was shaped by his role-models,
Plato’s and Peter Weir’s main concept is that people see reality as the visible world when reality is more than just the visible world. In both stories, they only knew what they were being tricked into believing. They would throw hardships at them whenever they were about to find out the truth. For Plato, education is a turning around of the soul (Plato, 248). As the master creator Chrystoff says, "We accept the reality of world with which we are presented" (Niccol 1998).
The characters and the theme of Fahrenheit 451 have many distinct characteristics that allow for it to be compared to The Truman Show. Fahrenheit 451 and The Truman Show both present the theme that people generally accept the reality they are given. Characters in the film and novel portray this theme by setting artificial reality against actual reality. What is shown as reality to the people in the film and in the novel is not what the actual world is. The reality presented is that knowledge is power and in both Fahrenheit 451 and The Truman Show there are people without knowledge and people with knowledge.
Allegory of the Cave, a short story by renowned philosopher Plato, describes the life of prisoners chained inside of a cave where all the knowledge they receive is given by unknown strangers behind them. It continues to elaborate on their transition from a lackluster world where they were truly in the dark to one that completely surpasses all expectations. Likewise, Stranger Than Fiction, a movie written by Zach Helm, illustrates an IRS auditor, Harold Crick, that is shackled by his mundane lifestyle and also has an embodied voice that seems to be controlling his life. The movie goes on to describe his arduous journey toward finding the woman behind the voice, which ultimately gives him a new perspective on life. Zach Helm’s screenplay Stranger Than Fiction and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave both describe the experience of a person escaping limited perspective darkness and discovering a more complex world than they had previously thought existed.
However, one prisoner is released and forced out into the reality, allowing the reader to understand that the world one sees and experiences is not the reality, but rather an illusion. Similarly, in The Truman Show by Andrew Niccol, Truman Bank has been growing up in Seahaven Island, a place created just for him to live in for a television show that is all about him. Throughout the film, Truman realizes that Seahaven is not the real world, and viewers see his journey to get out of this illusion, and into reality outside the false world. Both The Allegory of the Cave and The Truman Show prove that the physical world is an illusion that prevents one from discovering reality. The concept of illusion versus reality is evident in both works through similarities in plot, similarities in symbolism, and differences in character.
After reading 1984, the Truman show comes to mind first with many connections through the world, and the characters in the stories. For example, the Truman Show and 1984 both share a type of dictator: they control what happens to Truman and Winston. Telescreens are also used in both movies to monitor the character’s whereabouts. In the Truman Show, millions around the globe have watched Turman’s life, unlike Winston who is only watched by “Big Brother”. Truman and Winston both lost a parent and their society made them believe that it was their fault their parent died, when it is not.
The Truman Show and Fahrenheit 451 are very similar in that the main characters deal with many similar conflict. One conflict that is similar is that both lives are controlled . His “creator”, Christof controls what happens to him at any given moment. Christof also controls what the people who watch think and see. He makes them believe that Truman wants this lifestyle and could have gotten our of this life if he wanted to, which is not true.
When the enlightened prisoner returns to the cave “they all laugh at him and say he had spoiled his eyesight by going up there”(Plato __). Plato infers that society will purposely be blind to conform to society’s norms. When the escaped prisoner returns to the cave he “gets his eyes full of darkness” (Plato ___). The freed prisoner explains what the actual objects were that they were seeing were. Plato demonstrates that the ignorance and blindness to the truth is by choice.
Plato tells of a group of prisoners held in a dark cave chained to the walls. These people have never stepped outside into the world and can only experience shadows that are displayed on the opposite side of the cave through the light outside of the cave. One of the slaves, now liberated steps outside of the cave and is able to experience reality, or what we can distinguish as objective truth. After returning to explain to the other what he has seen there seems to be quite a difference in opinions(Plato). In his article Plato’s Cave, T.F Morris attempts to dissect Plato’s allegory and explains his belief that “… the shadows on the wall of the cave correspond to what we call reality…(Morris 417)”
The Truman show is a movie that’s plot is based off the republic by Plato, written in 360 B.C.E. The Truman show is about a man who’s lived his entire life in a fictional town that is actually a TV show set. He does not know that his life is a TV show but he starts to learn the truth throughout the movie. Although Peter Weir reuses the idea of a cave were stuck in and that the truth is hard to realize from Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, the transformation of the truth being much more than what we perceive and getting yourself out of your cave ultimately leads to a deeper truth that is as philosophically compelling. As Plato writes, “Human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood” meaning that literally, people are trapped in a cave. This is directly used the Truman show, as the TV show set is the cave that Truman in chained in.