There is a parallel between the status of the prisoners and spectators in cinema. The spectators of the cinema are held captive by the screen; they are unable to free themselves from the performance before them. They cannot see anything around them other than the performance. The prisoners are kept captive by their status and cannot free themselves from trudging along, each person in front of the other and unable to see anything beyond that.

We are deceived by movies and other media in many senses, but not all. Plato’s argument is that the media we are subjected to prevents us from recognizing any truth or the reality around us, as our perception is entirely altered by media. However, I believe that though one can be heavily influenced by media, through unconscious and conscious messaging perpetuated in it, there is still one’s own mindset. Multiple different forms of media and multiple arguments can bombard an individual, and yet not everyone has the same opinion because they reach their own conclusions. We are all influenced by many outside influences, but I disagree that media can fully alter our sense of truth and reality. People are capable of using reason and reaching their own conclusions outside of media and movies.

Revision: After reading Plato and watching the trailer for Don Jon in class, I differ from my previous opinion. I believe that media has the ability to cause individuals to form expectations around life and ideas, expectations that are often unrealistic. I find that people can form these expectations around what Plato would consider essences, such as beauty, but also around other ideas that he would consider more base, such as love or emotions. As seen in Don Jon, Don formed unrealistic expectations around sex because of the media he consumed, his girlfriend formed unrealistic expectations around love because of the media she consumed, and Don Jon’s family formed unrealistic expectations around family that they could not fulfill. I often find myself doing similar things, having unrealistic expectations of love based on Korean dramas I watch, or unrealistic expectations of beauty that I try to fulfill even unconsciously. These expectations we all try to fulfill based on media are expectations that are unavoidable but something we must be conscious of.

Going along with that, sometimes we mistake fiction for reality but sometimes not. To take the example of social messaging in media, women and men often believe they must act or buy certain things in order to feel socially acceptable. These messages can be entirely fictional, and perhaps even the societal message could be somewhat fictional. However, the social norm that women and men feel they must fulfill in order to feel acceptance is, in fact, real in their minds, and perhaps real in society. The social norm of women having to shave their legs and the commercial media around this message is entirely fictional in the sense that it has no true purpose, but real in the fact that it is a very real social standard.

Revision: It is possible that the physical world is not reality. According to Plato, the physical world is the base level, and there is a world of essences that we must all strive to reach. The world of the physical is a failed mirror of what things could be, and by relying on the physical world to define reality, we limit ourselves. It is easy to say that our reality is reality because it is tangible and therefore, we convince ourselves that it must be the standard by which all other realities must be judged. However, as Plato argues, the material is the lowest level of human capacity– an argument that I can agree with. There must be something beyond the material, as Plato seems to believe.

633 words