The Allegory of the Cave as Implied in Wachowki’s 1999 film “The Matrix”

Plato is an Athenian philosopher and Socrates' student who wrote the book The
Republic. This book includes the Allegory of the Cave which discussed about truths,
justice and idea. In this allegory, he used the cave, shadows, fire, prisoners and sun to
discuss the truths about life. According to him a people are like prisoners, chained and
tied inside the caves which only can see is the shadows from the object which is carried
by the people from their back. This shadows is what get ideas and assume that its true.
The fire symbolizes their limited knowledge. And the sun represents the real
understanding of things.
This allegory is observed in the 1999 movie titled The Matrix. In this movie, the
people is like prisoners or slaves chained inside the world of Matrix. The Matrix is the
cave where the people can’t escape. The data inside that world is like the shadows
which is given by the authorities to manipulate them to believe in some things they
assume as real. It is confirmed when Morpheus said to Neo, “It is the world that put into
your eyes to blind you from truths”. The Matrix is made of ideas which gets down to the
system to keep the people in order and stop them from learning the truth, that they are
slaves. Just like what Morpheus said in Neo, “That you are a slaves, Neo. Like
everyone else, you are born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell or
taste or touch.” And he also added that no one can explain the Matrix is unless
someone will see it in their own. But for a person who used born and lived inside of this
cave, it is hard to believe. It is because truth is far from the ideal world which planted in
people’s mind. Neo is the representation of the prisoner who able to get out from the
cage. After a long time staying in darkness, they can’t easily accept the real truth. Just
like what happened to Neo when he discovered the reality for the first time. With the
help of Morpheus which represents as a sun who helped in making him understand
what the Matrix is. He was living in the tube since he was born and used as energy
sources. He doesn’t want to believe that the world he used to is a fake and just made to
make the people follow without objecting.
The truth is also an option but its too risky because it will break everything they
know. In the movie, Morpheus asked Neo if he want to unfold the truth or just forget it.
People can choose the blue pill because some is afraid to know the truth and prefer to
be encaged in their own ignorance. But some people like Cypher despite knowing the
truth will still choose to be ignorant because reality is too dark and living in the cave is
much comfortable. They are a slaves or prisoners who choose to stay even they’re
already there. The movie shows that the truth is always far from what we believed. What
we see in visible world is just an idea we assumed as knowledge. And the movie also
implied the truth as forbidden and once its discovered the people will threaten the
system. They should be eliminated just like what the Smith Agents did to the group of
Morpheus and Neo.
In the end of the movie, Neo still lives and encouraging others to learn also the
truth they discovered. It is to open the eyes of the others and free themselves from the
chains which stopping them to know it. Therefore, truth is not what we touch, smell, hear
or taste, those are just ideas, a fragment from the real. It is what we believe and will
lead us to break the chains from imprisonment. The world has no rules but the system
does. Our society put ideologies which the people believe and follows. The real one is
what we see when we unfold the sheet which covering them.