The oppressive and mindless society of submissive followers depicted in Fahrenheit 451 illustrates imprisonment in the cave. Within their distorted community, the human beings willingly allow themselves to be left ignorant in the dark, unknowing of the true beauties and horrors of the world. Plato had described humanity as if “they were in an underground cave-like dwelling with its entrance, a long one, open to the light across the whole width of the cave. They are in it from childhood with their legs and necks in bonds so that they are fixed, seeing only in front of them, unable because of the bond to turn their heads all the way around” (Plato 193). Rendered immobile, they are unable to make their own decisions and have control over their own life. …show more content…
They watch mere shadows on the wall, distorted and controlled images from “puppet-handlers” (Plato 193), who had set a wall between the prisoners and the true world outside of the cave, revealing the shadows of the puppets above the wall, fabricating the truth of the cave. The prisoners “would hold that the truth is nothing other than the shadows of artificial things” (Plato 194). Montag, from birth, had been a thoughtless member of his society, obeying the rules and never questioning why. He was at heart, a fireman. A fireman who had enjoyed to burn words, stories, and creativity, “It was a pleasure to burn . . . to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” (Bradbury 1). His community had imprisoned him a world in which everything was for the benefit of an idealistic society where theoretically, everyone is happy, feeding him with lies. Truly a prisoner in a dark cave, Montag accepted the shadows without want for light, “Montag grinned the fierce grin of all men singed and driven back by flame
Nothing Is Ever As It Seems Looks can be deceiving, weather they are the cover of a book or the appearance of men and women . In some cases society and the world around us can be misleading. Between Clarisse’s outgoing personality and Mildred’s fear of change Guy Montag is set up to make a choice to go against a society that is largely misguided. Clarisse and Mildred are important to Montag’s life because Clarisse is incredibly interactive towards Guy and open his eyes to see the wrong, his wife, on the other hand, begs montag to keep things the way they are. Clarisse had her strange ways to interpret how society has formed over the years to lessen any confusing matters; although it was often that her strange ways in the category of being antisocial.
Throughout the last five weeks, I have read three of Plato’s dialogues: the cave allegory, Euthyphro, and the Apology. While reading them, I was able to see Plato’s view of a philosophical life. To live philosophically is to question appearances and look at an issue/object from a new perspective. In this essay, I will explain Plato’s cave allegory, Socrates’ discussion with Euthyphro, and the oracle story in the Apology.
At the outset, Montag was consumed by the darkness. He was a fireman who started fires instead of dousing them. Asked how long he has done so. He replies, “since I was twenty, 10 years ago.” (5) All the time he was, burning book after book, not knowing the full extent of his actions; he was totally unaware of all the knowledge being destroyed at his hand.
“[The firemen] turned, their faces like blanched meat, streaming sweat; [Montag] beat their heads, knocking off their helmets and bringing them down on themselves. They fell and lay without moving. ”(Bradbury, 113) By doing so, Montag openly protests against the society that he lives
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” has a variety of rhetorical devices that play a major role in the story. Right off the bat this whole story is an allegory because it has a very powerful meaning behind it. The story has metaphors in the passage that supports the story. There are personification that gives human like qualities to non living things. There are many more rhetorical devices used throughout the whole story that supports the entire meaning for example; metaphor, polysyndeton, personification and allegory.
Through a close analysis of Plato's Allegory of the Cave, Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach, and the Book of Ecclesiastes, we can gain a deeper understanding of Montag’s journey to enlightenment. Plato's Allegory of the Cave is a metaphor for the journey of enlightenment. Montag, in the beginning, is like the prisoners in the cave, seeing only shadows and unaware of the true reality. When the prisoners leave the cave they will need to get used to their new world but, when they do they realize what their former life was, similar to Montag’s own realization. “when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive someone saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion” (Plato).
Changing Montag In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the main character Montag, learns and develops throughout the story. Montag morals change from the beginning and the way he thinks and acts change. In this novel there is a couple of characters who try and stop Montag and theirs characters who help Montag to become the person he became at the end. Montag went from a depressed normal person, to a hero to believe in meaning.
Just like the prisoner of the Cave, Harold Crick breaks free from his chains of naivety and widens his vision to become truly enlightened. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave the prisoners are described as being “chained so they cannot move, and can only see before them” (Plato 1). These chains are notable not only because they are the restriction that keeps the people
In the Allegory of the Cave and Fahrenheit 451, people become blinded by what they do not know and differences between lifestyles. In the Allegory of the Cave no one knew what the outside world was like and as stated: “He wouldn’t be able to see things up on the surface of the earth, I suppose, until he’d got used to his situation.” People do not understand or try to understand what they do not know or what they do not agree with. In the book, people abolished books because there was a chance someone would disagree with it. Everyone contains only happiness, because they live in a society where they do not know everything, but they do not know what they do not know.
This “fire” in represents as books made illegal to stop the spread of knowledge due to the people of this future society becoming disinterested, and more interested in things such as speeding, talking to wall, that those people begin to believe in a false reality and show false emotions. There is also the totalitarian government of this future society that fears the sharing of knowledge because it would loosen the power that the government has created to overpower the people. Montag akin to the detainees of the cave begin to leave the cave to see the realities of their
(Bradbury 8). Montag is faced, for the first time, with having to examine his life and if he is actually happy. It destroys his “mask”, allowing him to see the problems of his life, and, more importantly, society. The new perspective “kills” a part of him, the part that was content with his perfect life (having a good,
So instead of longing for it, he decides to leave and fight for what he believes is right. In the story, Montag says to “stuff your eyes with wonder… live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic that any dream made or paid for in factories” (Bradbury 157). In this quote, Montag is going against his strict society and fighting for his own individuality.
Plato tells us that the prisoners are confused on their emergence from the cave and that the prisoners’ will be blinded once they had been freed from the cave. After a period of time they will adjust their eyesight and begin to understand the true reality that the world poses. The stubbornness to develop a different perspective is seen in much of today’s society. The allegory of the cave is an understanding of what the true world is and how many people never see it because of their views of the society they are raised in.
The emergence from the cave is an enlightenment of intellectualism, when all the difficulties and confusion of life is gone and only reality exists. Plato uses the shadow of fire as a metaphor for intelligence. The people who emerged out of the brightness represent truth; the freed prisoner. The chained prisoner would “look towards the firelight; all this would hurt him, and he would be too much dazzled to see distinctly those things whose shadows he had seen before”(Plato
The fire and these statues cast shadows across the wall which the "prisoners" are able to see. As the prisoners watch these shadows and because they are the only things they see, they believe them to be the most real things in the world. The Shadows are mistaken for reality because of the ignorance that comes