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Ignorance In Wachowski's Allegory Of The Cave

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As Will Durant once stated, “Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.” Ignorance can make one unaware of the dismal reality he is living. Only the knowledge gained can be used to reach overall enlightenment. Similarly, these ideas are expressed through a prisoner trapped in a cave in “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato, as well as Neo stuck in a false world in The Matrix by the Wachowski’s. Both stories exhibit the struggle of escaping ignorance and reaching a place of knowledge. Both Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and the Wachowski’ The Matrix illustrate that overcoming ignorance through a journey of realization can lead one to knowledge and eventually grant him to the enlightenment necessary to spread the truth. The journey Neo from The Matrix and the cave dweller from Plato’s allegory take demonstrate this theme.
At first, Neo and the cave dwellers are dissatisfied with their lack of knowledge, increasing their desire to know more about the reality they are living and rid themselves of the ignorance from which they are suffering. Both characters begin their journey in their own false worlds. Because they are …show more content…

Neo is released from his fake world with the help of Trinity and Morpheus, 2 people involved in the rebellion of the Matrix. Upon waking up from the “sleep” he was under, Neo gets his first look at the human pods. The pods are used to power the Matrix by inserting humans that have been synthetically created. He is horrified by his realization of the situation, as he now knows that the world he believed to be real is in fact created to blind him from the truth. Similarly, the cave dweller is shocked when he initially is exposed to the world outside of the cave. After being trapped for so long, the sun causes a “pain in his eyes which will make him look away. . .” (Plato

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