philosophy

Roshni Patel

Professor Michael Arvanitopoulos

November 30, 2020

The Allegory of Plato’s Cave and Modern Society

In this essay I will discuss about Maggie and her mother in the film, ‘Million Dollar Baby’ to show correlations between her situation and that brought out in Plato’s Cave Metaphor. Maggie who is born into a poor family decides to pull herself out of poverty. She works as a waitress in a hotel and is ready to take responsibility of any of her mistakes, later trains to be a boxer and even participates in boxing competitions. Maggie’s mother, just like the people in Plato’s Cave chained in a dark cave, saw any efforts that her daughter put to get her out of poverty as a threat to her. She argues that the act of her daughter buying her a house puts her at a risk of not receiving government aids. By so doing she is trying to convince her daughter that remaining in her situation of poverty where she receives government aid is the right place. This is just like the people chained in the dark cave who puts in all effort to make sure that no one gets them out of the cave. Just like people in the cave try to convince the one who has seen the light and tries to save them that the idea of getting to the surface is the bad one, so does Maggie’s mother to her daughter. Maggie’s mother is ready to disown her own daughter who tries to drag her out of poverty just like people chained in the cave who would kill anyone that tried to bring them to the surface to see light.

The character traits of Maggie and those of her mother are contrasting in a great deal of ways and clearly portrays the allegory of Plato’s cave. To understand this statement, we have to briefly understand what the book, written by Plato had in a nutshell. Plato draws a picture of people that have been chained in a cave since their childhood, facing the walls of the dark cave and cab only see the shadow of puppets and animals that are being carried by people passing behind the wall and not the real people ( Sontag, S 1977). The perception in their mind is that what they see is the reality. Plato moves a step further to draw a picture of a prisoner who is set free inside the cave. He would face the fire in disbelief runs away because he perceives what he used to see as the best facing the wall. In another scenario when the prisoner is forcefully dragged out of the pit, at first he will be blinded by the sun’s radiations but with time, he will face the sun, be able to see the reality and also perceive this new environment as better than in the dark cave. He will pity his colleagues and would go back to the cave to explain to them about the new light at the surface. Plato explains that the man will be first of all blinded by the darkness in the cave and his colleagues will sympathize with him and hence perceive the idea of being dragged to the surface as the bad one begrudging anyone who attempted to pull them to the surface to the point of killing him or her. Having established a lick up of what my paper entail it is with brief understanding that, this paper carries much of the plato’s cave and specially to establish a deep understanding to the reader. These scenarios have been used symbolically and have a concrete meaning in the life of a human being. The fire means political doctrines that shed shadows to people who believe that it’s the actual reality whereas the shadows represent the illusions in the minds of people that barely represent the superficial truth. The cave represents the cocoon of ignorance that is within the minds of prisoners who are in total darkness, another symbol of ignorance and trapped in chains of the same ignorance. The sun represents the higher knowledge of truth and ideas which are the most crucial aspects of reality. The light from the suns radiation represents the wisdom that humans ought to have to face the reality.

In the film, ‘Million Dollar Baby’, the character of Maggie and her mother has been used to portray a good example of the two worlds that different perceptions about issues in life- the world of darkness represented by the mother and the world of light and wisdom represented by Maggie. Being born from a poor background, Maggie had all the reasons to stay in that cocoon of mediocrity and utter dependence on the government aids as her mother did but her determination to face the reality and of life has been portrayed in a range of ways in the film. At first Maggie is determined to work and pay her wages as a waitress in a hotel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J_e2sGKaXk). This effort requires a determined heart that is ready to be confronted by their bosses in case of any breach in the operations of the hotel. The greatest act of determination and resilience is seen when Maggie asks Frankie to train her as a boxer. Despite the many times that her request is turned down, she is resilient to learn even saying that boxing was the only thing that caught her attention. Maggie stands against Frankie’s criticism that she was too old to start a career in boxing and hence she perfects with a resilient heart of training with the help pf Scrap and Frankie himself. This character shows how ready Maggie is o ace the reality which the light in the physical world.

Maggie is very brave as has been shown by her participation in various boxing events. Despite the various challenges encountered in the ring, she is able to soldier on because she has discovered that her destiny depends on boxing not any other activity. She understands that winning is a choice made by an individual just the same way as losing. She bravely faces all her opponents in the lightweight category and she is promoted to the welterweight boxing categories. Her brevity has made a fortune for her for she is able to gather a good amount of capital to cater for her expenses and she is willing to help her family members by buying a house for her mother who passionately criticizes this move saying that it endangered her government aid and that all other people in the community were laughing at her. Maggie shows a great compassion for her family who are living in the dark cave, she ready to return to the cave and share her labor and successes which are declined by the family. From the film, the ignorance of the prisoners as had been written by Plato can be portrayed in the modern society. Maggie’s mother, is ignorant in a variety of ways; for instance, she perceives the government aids as the only way to survive and perceives her daughter’s effort to buy her a house as a huge threat to the aids from the government. Just as the prisoners in the dark that are ready to kill anyone that attempts to drag them to the surface to face the light- the reality, Maggie mother disowns her daughter. What a high level of ignorance in the society? The only light that the mother can see is the political doctrine emits a shadow, the aid which she perceives as the reality but it’s only a superficial truth. The pessimism of the mother contrasts her daughter’s optimism and determination to work by her own hands to earn the living.

From the film, the nature of perception in different individuals has been drawn clearly as explained by Plato. This kind of life is being experienced in the society from various dimensions. The only person that is able to climb the wall to face reality is the only one that is able to safe the society, however, most people have the wrong perceptions of the reality and are not willing to be helped by their colleagues that has the ideas and the fundamentals of reality.

References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J_e2sGKaXk

Sontag, S. (1977). In Plato’s cave. On photography, 3.

This paper sufficiently premises the argument it posts. You show good understanding of the reading material and the film characters. A bit more care with the language.

GRADE: A