In life, we sometimes feel as the illusions are minds escape too is far easier to live in than facing our reality. In The Matrix, the protagonist realizes the world he always knew was an illusion and when faced with the reality of the real world, he is taken back. In Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave, Plato points out that when we learn our reality has always been an illusion, although somewhat uncomfortable, we adjust with time. In my opinion, the Matrix was more accurate about escaping illusions and embracing reality. We as society have learned this from early childhood, when we are confronted with the fact that what we believe in, is false when it comes to fictional tales about people like Santa Clause. In History, Americans were blinded by the reality of what was becoming of Germany and how hundreds of thousands of Jewish people were been held and murdered of what the image rulers were portraying as being the perfect race and eliminating those who didn’t. In text we commonly see that at the end of a story, a character no matter what standpoint he or she has, becomes excepting of the truth. At some point in the time we are faced with the honest truth whether it is what we would like to except or not.
From our early adolescence, we are constantly fed with fables and stories such as Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, all consisting of fictional characters that live a life of hardships but somehow come to live “happily ever after”. As we grow older and gain knowledge, we lose our innocence and are confronted with the reality that in life there isn’t always a happily ever after and nothing comes as easy as those stories we were once told. The same goes with the tale of Santa clause. We were told that a man would come bring us gifts if we behaved, but when we learned the truth we realized that Christmas doesn’t come as easily we thought it did, but solely up to whether we were economically fortunate enough that year to receive something from our guardians. The reality of childhood is not as sweet once we gain responsibilities as adults. In The Matrix the main character has a hard the accepting the bitter truth of the reality of the real word.
After world war two, Adolf Hitler was becoming a dictator in Germany. He believed an Aryan race would keep intact the German race and keep it pure. Hitler sought out to eliminate all Jewish believers because of his personal hatred towards specific people who followed this religion. He managed to come up with an army of followers who believed his ignorance and kill thousands of men, woman and children. After Hitler was finally over thrown, the rest of the world finally saw the aftermath of the holocaust and impact history forever. In The Matrix the main character realizes how many people are brainwashed by what he once thought to be reality and sees the corruptness of the system.
In literature we see characters face harsh lessons even in the most simplest of books such as in the story of the Tortoise and the Hare. The Hare underestimates the endurance of the Tortoise and because he’s so far ahead in the race he decides to take a nap. When the Hare awakes he sees the Tortoise slowly crossing the finish line. Although the moral of the story is that you never underestimate the strength of your opponent, from the story you can take that the though the odds were against the tortoise, he never lost hope in finishing the race. In the matrix, the main character Neo sacrifices himself to save his mentor Morpheous although doubtful because he was told he wasn’t “the one”. It was the endurance inside of him that proved he was “the one” after all.
It is very easy to be consumed with the illusions were surrounded in life. Though some find more comfort it just what is, those who do face reality eventually prevail.
