Monday, November 1, 2010

Revision to Essay #2

Illusions, a force depicted in our minds which make us visualize and think that everything around us is perfect. It can be something we seek or desire. An example of a type of an illusion is a hallucination. This is where people can foresee the future we appetite for as seen in the movie, “The Matrix”. The illusion is an excellent idea because not everyone can be fortunate enough to live in high quality standard, so for those that are not able to; they will get a taste of the superior life style.         
 The desire for an illusion can help us create an imaginary world to comfort us. Illusion gives people hope for a better tomorrow and can imprint a pleasant feeling in our soul while living in a luxurious environment. In the human anatomy, when we are feeling satisfied, our brain sends out neurotransmitters called dopamine. This gives us the good and joyous feeling. Living in an illusion can benefit people from their everyday stressful life by making a person imagine a place where a colorful, peaceful world is all we see. From the movie “The Matrix”, living in reality was an illusion, where everything around us wasn’t real. But after a machine is taken off these peoples brain, they come back to reality where all you eat is soup and wear the same clothes. A character from the movie, Cypher, shows how the reality world wasn’t satisfying him because his eyes were craving for the illusion; where he can be pleased with anything that he wanted.  His desire was to live the high class life where he gets to eat steak all day. From the movies perspective of an illusion, the matrix is something we can portray with our senses. Just like Cypher, where his craving for money and food in the illusion world was known to him as reality.  This idea is seen in the “Allegory of The Cave” by Plato, where Socrates describes how the slaves in the cave chose to live in an illusion.
 In the “Allegory of The Cave”, Plato described how slaves were stranded in the cave from childhood. Thus, it led them to be able to never fully comprehend what reality was. They thought that reality and the world only revolved around and in that cave. For instance Socrates states: “the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be.”  But from Socrates perspective, the prisoners were to decide if they wanted to be scorned by others and live with the truth or to live in a lie and be ignorant. As well as to live in an illusion in which the prisoners had already decided to live with. This statement can be compared to the Matrix where Neo first introduces the decision where he needs to decide if he wants to drink the blue pill or the red pill. The blue pill will allow him to go back to the reality world in the illusion, where it can be compared to living with a lie and being ignorant in the illusion. The red pill would consent to finding out the facts about the Matrix, and this can be compared to living by telling the truth and being scorned by others. Socrates also stated: “and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive someone saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion,” Personally, this statement is that the reality is an illusion. The feeling of being in an illusion can be overwhelming but some people may want to go back to their original way of living. For example, many of us want to live in the shoes of wealthy actors or actresses. Their way of life may be great at first but then other flaws like never being able to go out in public without paparazzi and journalists seeking to catch a glimpse that can destroy your future or even their families that can make us want to be ordinary again. The overall feeling of living rich and being famous can complete our life temporarily which is a good quality to make us feel happy.
Hallucination is what we define as an illusion and what we portray in our brain.  Cypher sees that the reality world was the illusion which pleased him and from “allegory of the cave” Socrates also perceives that reality is an illusion as well. Illusion can also be a fantasy to allow us to see whatever we want to see, but in Cypher’s case anything you plug into your brain resulted with a pleasing sensation. The Matrix best explains the theory because it describes that an illusion is something we see, touch, hear, smell and taste.

No comments:

Post a Comment