Edward Williams

ANTH 209
Due: Nov. 22, 2004
Essay: The Matrix/ Connected

Many of the ideas in the Wachowski brothers’ film The Matrix are based on

anthropological ideas, such as globalization and postmodernism. The following is a

summary of the movie, and descriptions of society of the spectacle, commodification of

culture, flexible identity, and fragmentation of reality, as well as examples of how these

are portrayed in the film.

The Matrix is the story of a computer hacker - Neo/ Thomas Anderson - who

learns that nothing he knows is what it seems. The main characters in the film are

Morpheus, Neo and Trinity. Laurence Fishburne plays Morpheus who is the ringleader

of this sci-fi circus of rebels. Keanu Reeves plays Neo who has been chosen as “the one”

who will free humanity from the restraints of the matrix. Carrie-Anne Moss plays Neo’s

love interest named Trinity. In The Matrix, Thomas Anderson lives two lives: by day he

works as a program writer for a software company, while at night he leads the enigmatic

life of Neo, a computer hacker in the never ending search for the matrix, who is “guilty of

virtually every computer crime [there is] a law for.” Morpheus, the leader of a group of

rebels conspiring to destroy the matrix in order to free humanity, finds Neo and acts as a

father figure to him as he teaches him that he is a part of the matrix.

The matrix, as Neo is taught, is a system into which humankind has been

unknowingly forced, and is a façade to the world in which they actually live. The system

disguises the fact that humanity has been taken over by machines. These machines thrive

on energy produced by humans and have begun to manufacture humans as a way of

continuing that energy. The matrix keeps people in an illusory and surreal state

constantly pumping them full of feelings and emotions to keep them blissful and

ignorant. The matrix is essentially the way that people view everyday life as they know

it. To whom something happens, what happens, and when, where, why, and how it

happens are all elements determined by a program in the matrix. Morpheus describes the

matrix as “a computer-generated dream world built to keep [people] under control in

order to change a human-being into [a battery].”

Society of the spectacle is the relation of people to each other and to the world

around them, using mediated mass media. Society of the spectacle exists in everyday life

through tools and objects such as television, Internet, radio, telephones, and other such

devices that connect people to what is happening in the world around them. The Matrix

uses some of these tools of society of the spectacle as well. Two major examples of these

are the use of computers and the Internet, as well as the use of cell phones. Computers

and Internet are used in the film to hack into the matrix, thus connecting the hackers to

the matrix and the machines that are running their lives. Cell phones are used throughout

the film as a means of connecting to each other within the matrix, but also from within

the matrix to the outside or “real” world. Society of the spectacle is a cultural shift in

globalization. Another cultural shift in globalization is the commodification of culture,

which is when culture becomes something that can be bought. One example of this from

The Matrix is the “dealing for bliss” scene in which Cypher, played by Joe Pantoliano,

bargains with “agents” of the matrix to be put back into the system with no recollection

of ever being taken out of it. Cypher is convinced that the life that he leads as a rebel is

not worth the cost of being caught and punished for his crimes, and that the surreal life
that subordinates of the matrix lead is much more desirable. Regarding the lack of

knowledge that one is merely living in an illusion of reality, he suggests, “ignorance is

bliss.”

Postmodernism is displayed throughout the film The Matrix in many scenarios.

First off there is flexible identity, which is essentially the idea of a person becoming

somebody else through his or her personal traits and characteristics. Flexible identity is

represented in The Matrix through Neo’s transformation from a working class drone

within the matrix to a rebel hacker who uses the matrix as a sort of computer game to

defeat the machines who put him into the matrix. Another example of postmodernism is

fragmentation of reality, which is quite abundant in the film. Fragmentation of reality, as

explained in class discussions, is the way that “undesirable others” are excluded “from

[one’s] self-selected realities.” This means that we can escape from reality as we choose

through things such as mp3 players, “god games” such as the Sims, telephones, and so

on. This exists in The Matrix through tools such as cell phones and computers. The

matrix itself is actually a fragmentation of reality in that it is a complete dream world

created to simulate a more peaceful life, while life itself is more like imprisonment. To

elaborate, in the film humans are “produced” and kept in a “cell” where their bodies are

taken care of, and given everything that they need to survive and produce energy. While

their bodies are being imprisoned, their minds are in a completely different place where

their senses are being deceived. For instance, in the matrix the dead are fed

“intravenously to the living”, but the living believe that they are eating a “big juicy

steak.” This is the ultimate fragmentation of reality. Lesser forms of fragmentation of

reality in the movie are the way that the matrix is programmable by hacking into it and
therefore one can control what is encountered in the matrix. Another example is the way

that people can be hacked into and programmed. This is seen in two main examples in

the movie. The first example is when kung fu is programmed into Neo’s brain, at which

point he suddenly becomes a master at the martial art. The second example is when an

Apache Helicopter Pilot training program is programmed into Trinity toward the end of

the movie. Another fragmentation of reality displayed in The Matrix, and also discussed

in Steven Shaviro’s text Connected, is the Buddhist theory that things are not real and do

not actually exist. This is shown through a lesson that teaches Neo “there is no spoon.”

In this lesson, Neo learns that if an object is not real it does not exist, and he can do

anything that he wants with it. In this situation, he bends a non-existent spoon using only

his mind. This is later shown in the movie when Neo stops bullets that are being shot at

him in mid air. Seeing as how the bullets are not real, and do not exist, he is able to do

this in accordance with the Buddhist theory.

The film The Matrix is filled with anthropological ideas and theories. The most

abundant of these are cultural shifts in globalization including society of the spectacle

and commodification of culture, as well as postmodernism including flexible identity and

fragmentation of reality. These ideas are displayed very well through the science fiction

world of The Matrix.

Bibliography:

• Shaviro, Steven. Connected. 2003. The Regents of the University of

Minnesota.

• Wachowski Brothers. The Matrix. 1999. Warner Bros.