The Truman Show and the Allegory of the Cave have alot of the same ideas. In The Truman Show, the main character is unaware that his entire life has been staged. Truman was legally adopted by a corporation when he was born and they have created the world's largest set (Seahaven) for him. The people who he considers friends and famaily are all paid actors. In The Allegory Of The Cave, the main character is a man who has been in a cave for his entire life. He has been chained at the neck and feet so that he cannot turn around, he can only stare at the wall in front of him. Behind him is a walkway and a fire. The fire casts shadows of people walking by and he can only see the shadows on the wall. Just like in The Truman Show, the main character can only see part of the real world. Truman sees actors portray fake emotions and in the Allegory Of The Cave the main character only sees the shadows of people. Both of them are only seeing part of the big picture. In The Truman Show an old girlfreind tries to tell him the truth, that he is actually on a television show and that nothing is real. In The Allegory Of The Cave, the man sees the sun for the first time and he starts to question life as well. Both stories have symbols that inspire the characters to find out if there is more to life. In the Truman Show it his his old girlfriend and in The Allegory Of The Cave it is the sun. Although the two stories are similar in some way, they also have very different ideas. In The Truman Show, Truman is trying to escape his phony life and start a real one. In the Allegory OF the Cave the man is more focused on sharing what he has learned with others so they can experience what he has. Both stories are insporational, but somehow dissapointing. The allegory of the cave ended and noone else in the cave believed the stories of the sun, they just remained ignorant and stayed in the cave, and in The Truman show, he found a way out of his old life but he will probably be lost and confused when he starts his new one. So even though both stories are very different they both share some of the same ideas.
As my vote above says, I REALLY like your thinking here, especially when you compare the woman that Truman feels connected to (because she's "real"?) with Socrates' the Good/the Sun.
ReplyDeleteAnd perhaps you are right: the truth is not a happy place--so far. But the more people that leave the cave, the more chances that there could be a "happy ending" for everyone, no?