Comparing Plato's Allegory Of The Cave And The Truman Show

The Truman show directed by Peter Weir and the dialogue “Allegory of the Cave,” written by Plato, both represent what an individual sees as the truth when they are controlled by the man made truth. In the Truman show, it’s a show where Truman Burbank has lived his whole life being broadcasted for 24 hours a day and has been living in a false world without knowing the truth. Similar to the “Allegory of the Cave,” in where Plato uses the cave and everything inside of that cave as a metaphor giving a description about a group of prisoners that have been the chained to the wall of the cave and only see shadows on what they perceive is reality.Both, The Truman Show and “Allegory of the Cave” demonstrate how the individuals experience their own

Limited Knowledge, truth (or revelation), reality, and idealism are some of the common themes expressed in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and the film “The Truman Show.” The differences can be found in the way Plato allows some of the prisoners to remain unknowing, by giving them an almost fear-like stance involving the truth of their world, and how to free themselves. Another is that the “false” world is created on different premises, either to create a safe an ideal environment, or merely to only allow the characters to think their world is ideal (both treat those involved like a science experiment). Both of these stories, however, have a similar plot in that they keep the subjects having very limited

​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 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 the ‘The Allegory of the Cave’, Plato uses a philosophical situation to help us as the reader to examine our perception of life by what is around us. Plato uses such an abstract situation to show that we can mistake the information that we gain due to our position in a situation for truth.

The Allegory of the Cave has many parallels with The Truman Show. Initially, Truman is trapped in his own “cave”; a film set or fictional island known as Seahaven. Truman’s journey or ascension into the real world and into knowledge is similar to that of Plato’s cave dweller. In this paper, I will discuss these similarities along with the very intent of both of these works whose purpose is for us to question our own reality.

Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" is a story that conveys his theory of how we come to know, or how we attain true knowledge. It is also an introduction into his metaphysical and ethical system. In short, it is a symbolic explanation of his "Theory of the Forms" (or eidos).

Plato's main goal in the Allegory of the Cave is to communicate the relevance and importance of the concept of intellectual perspective. His real agenda is to illustrate that most people are likely perceiving the world around them in a much more limited manner than they realize and that most of us are, to some degree, living our lives in the same circumstances as the prisoners he

Plato is widely considered one of the most influential figures in the development process of western philosophy, and societies throughout the world. Examples of his influence and ideas can be found in works like “On Shadows and Realities in Education”, in his book The Republic. Within the text, Plato challenges society to ponder the concept of reality and how individuals perceive it. Even today scholars and philosophers are questioning reality in the same way Plato did thousands of years ago and are applying those ideas in modern society. Although it might not seem that a modern film and an ancient story could shed light on one another, a look at the Director Peter Weir's film, The Truman Show, in terms of Plato's allegory of the cave shows that elements of his allegory such as the cave, the origin of knowledge, and the nature of reality itself, are still depicted.

In The Allegory of the Cave, Plato uses a vast spectrum of imagery to explain ones descent from the cave to the light. While Plato uses this Allegory to explain his point through Socrates to Glaucon. This allegory has many different meanings. The Allegory can be used in many different ways, from religion to politics to ones own intellectual enlightenment, or it can be interpreted as the blinded person in a colt like reality. Are we all prisoners in a world that is forced on us through the media? How do we really know that we are not just pawns in some one’s chess game. What meaning was Plato trying to introduce to Glaucon? This cave can represent many aspects in the world. And the prisoners can be any one. The

Humankind is filled with individuals testing each other and competing with one another to be the greatest, ignoring the reality of life. In the “Allegory of the Cave,” Plato justifies this by displaying a parable that serves as a metaphor for life. This parable teaches the reader how people wish to remain in their comfort zones and disregard the truth. It portrays the struggle of facing different realities that alter the illusion of one's life. In the story, he described a group of prisoners chained inside a dark cave; their only source of light comes from a burning fire that is used to create shadows. These shadows display images that the prisoners each interpret as the reality; however, once one is released and is struck by the light, he

“The Truman Show” accurately reflects Plato’s allegory, as Truman represents a prisoner in the cave as the only knowledge he was able to obtain was artificial and illegitimate. When Truman would attempt to discover the truth he would constantly be stopped as the directors would place obstacles in his way in order to lead him away from the truth. Both sources also attempt to portray and answer philosophical questions such as “is there change?” and “what is change?”. Plato’s allegory does this by discussing two worlds: the empirical world which is the one we live in and the world of forms which is only obtained through philosophical reasoning. In the movie Truman lives his life as a prisoner in the empirical world and is constantly fooled by by the actors who act as the shadows in Plato’s allegory. As the movie progresses Truman begins to realise that the world he’s living in is not real and that he needs to do further research in order to discover the actual truth. As Truman attempts to uncover the truth about his life people begin to tell him that he’s “crazy”, he begins to "feel like the whole world revolves around [him]" (Truman Burbank 00:55:36) and he tries to escape it. According to Plato, once a philosopher sees the light of truth, he will act in ways that make others, who have not seen the light, think he is crazy. Upon escaping he exits the empirical world he lived in and enters into the world of forms as he finally gains the knowledge of knowing that his entire life was a TV show and everything that he had lived through before was a false reality.

However, because of some of the situations he encounters and sees, and with his curiosity and logic, Truman is able to work out something isn?t right about the world and manages to escape. Because it is a gradual realization, Truman doesn?t go mad as his make believe world unravels around him. As might be the case with Plato?s cave dwellers, as they are stepping into the light of the real world.

On the surface of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” it is just a simple piece, but the main purpose of the piece is to explain people living in a world of face value and having individuals break free from the main idea to create a new sense of what the world is truly about. In here, Plato uses the writing style of allegory to encompass the use of imagery and symbolism to explain his purpose. He also uses very clever dialogue with constant repetition to represent a bigger idea about the philosophy with chained up people living in a cave of shadows.

In the Allegory of the Cave there are chained prisoners in cave who can only stare at the cave wall in front of them. At the back there is a long entrance with a staircase the width of the cave and a fire burning in the distance. They see only shadows projected in front of them from a raised platform and hear an echo that they attribute to what they observe. They talk about and name the shadows of objects they see before them. To them the truth are the shadows. Then one day one of the prisoners is released. He is told that what he saw before was an illusion. Once he is outside it takes a while for his eyes to adjust to the sun. First he observed the shadows of thing then their reflection and finally the actual object. Remembering his previous state he goes back to the cave and tries to explain that everything is an illusion but they laugh at him and think he’s crazy. They believe it best not to ascend and they choose to remain as they are. The cave represented opinion. The shadows that are cast on to the wall represented physical objects. The prisoners represented the common people (Welles).

People are very ignorant towards homeless people, just how the prisoners are in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” to the outside world. Society seems to view the homeless as nasty, dirty people who are drug addicts when in reality a lot of them are just in very unfortunate situations that they can't get themselves out of. Just like the rich may view the poor and the educated may view the uneducated, people are quick to judge things that they are ignorant of. I know this based on first hand knowledge and experience about how it to be