A bright light can be overpowering. In the beginning after the credits, there is a bright light. Throughout watching the film and comparing it with Plato’s Cave, I found particular coincidences that drew my immediate attention. When I first watched “The Matrix,” all I could think about was how sick the slow motion, guns, and blazing scenes were, and how loud the surround sound was to my ears. After watching it this time with “The Cave” in mind, it definitely put a lot more of the illusions into a different perspective. My symbolic references could be off, but for me they are true.
In my first blog, I related the cave to being shallow, empty, and dark. When the police are going through the dark hallway in search of Trinity, it reminded me of the cave. When they kick the door open, they find Trinity sitting in the corner looking at the wall. What was interesting to me was how you can see her figure cast a shadow on the wall. They ask her to put her hands up which then resembles the puppets from the cave. The police use the light to try to find their way through the dark building. This light represents how they cannot see—not see outside of the box. They are still enslaved by the system, the Matrix; they cannot think for themselves.
When Trinity said “Wake up, Neo,” the quote immediately grabbed my attention and reminded me one of my favorite musicians, Bob Marley. He had a song titled, “Wake up and live,” which calls out for people to realize that there is a lot more than meets the eye. “Wake up,” is a very broad statement. I feel that it could mean to literally wake up from sleep, or wake up from this routine that we may all have, and to ultimately expand our minds to enrich our lives even further.
This also ties in with Neo at the office where he works. At work, he is in a tiny cubicle, hiding from the agents. The slave at work, our ordinary routine, everyone in the office is the same, working just in the same way. We are all dependent on the system, the Matrix, for survival. Also, when in the office, speaking with his boss, Neo glances out the window and observes the washers cleaning the windows. The dirty window represents cloudiness, confusion and altered reality or state of mind. As the window begins to be cleaned, it is obviously clearer to look out and see “the new realm.”
Does Morpheus represent the greatest good, a god similar to that of the power of the sun?
He is very wise and seems to have an answer for everything similar to how Socrates informed the slave. “You have to see it for yourself,” a quote which ties in with my first blog about how I gain the most from personal experiences.
In class we spoke about chains symbolizing mental, physical, spiritual, and control. It appears that these come into play when Morpheus is hand-cuffed to the chair in the high-rise building. He uses all of these aspects to release from his imprisonment.
After Morpheus sticks the needle in the hole in the neck, he and Neo appear in a bright white lighted room. It appears that Neo is somewhat blinded by the light, ignorant, the over-powering presence of knowledge. He has been living in the matrix and has been consumed by it. Morpheus always wears sunglasses in these scenes. I think this is a symbol that has a great reflection on Plato’s theme. Morpheus is enlightened, similar to that of Socrates, thus the light does not bother him for he has experienced it before.
For seven years while I was growing up in Novato, I studied a mixture of different styles of martial arts. I attended Ito’s White Tiger dojo which pertained mostly to Karate/Kenpo. Sensei Ito also gave us instruction in Chinese-boxing, tai chi breathing techniques, and Jeet Kune Do. This leads me to my next observation. It was “The Dragon,” Bruce Lee who gave me the motivation and interest to even begin studying the martial arts. For as long as I can remember, I have always been a Bruce Lee fan. I recognized the teachings of Bruce when Morpheus is fighting with Neo during the Kung-Fu scene.
Morpheus says “free your mind.” This closely resembles Bruce’s philosophy and his teachings of Tao of Jeet Kune Do. Bruce used to say, “Using no way, as way. Having no limitation, as limitation.” You must be able to adapt to your surroundings. We are all simply taught the concepts, a certain way of thinking. Yet, it is up to us to expand our minds and go further, to go beyond what everyone else might know. Bruce encouraged his students to use all the different systems and to absorb and adapt what is useful into their own personal style. He insisted that Jeet Kune Do was not a style but a way of thinking.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This was my first times to see The Matrix and I was really impressed with the special effects. I enjoyed the action scenes so much that it was difficult at times to remember that I was working on a class assignment.
ReplyDeleteYour reference to Trinity’s apartment as a cave is interesting. When I think of Plato’s cave I imagine a large number of prisoners trapped in a jail like condition. In the movie there was a scene where they show Neo being kept in what looked like an egg. He was covered with a strange liquid and was hooked up to what appeared to be a computer cable. The place was dark and scary and contained thousands of other humans also in eggs. This place reminded me of Plato’s cave.
You ask if Morpheus represents the greatest good or a god. I wasn’t sure what he represented at first. There were times that he appeared to be very enlightened. But through most of the movie he seemed to be struggling to avoid being captured. I assumed that like Neo he was an above average human who had some powers and he had somehow managed to escape from the darkness of the matrix and was moving into the light and was interested in helping others escape. I decided that the Oracle with her questions and insight was more representative of Socrates. I also found it very interesting that in the film this character was an African American woman.
I thought that your reference to Neo in his office and the other workers there as slaves to the Matrix was very good. The office workers at their desks looking at false images on their computer screens also reminded me of the cave. Instead of being tied down with physical chains they were being restraint with mental chains. I was discussing your paper with my husband and a song also came to him. It’s a song called ‘Volunteer Slavery’ by a jazz musician named Roland Kirk. My husband played me the song and it goes something like this “Volunteer slavery its something that we all know…”