Allegory Of The Cave And Brave New World Comparison Essay
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Brianna Flanagan
PHILOS 101 Tues. 6:30-9:35pm
Enlightenment as a Choice
“The unexamined life is not worth living” (Plato, 35). One of the greatest philosophers of all time, Socrates, believed that the purpose of human life was spiritual growth, the betterment of one’s soul. Seeking wisdom and truth. The book “Brave New World” and “The Allegory of the Cave” are both realities in which mankind is not allowed to think freely or seek enlightenment. In Brave New World, “Controllers” rule the world to insure social stability by conditioning mankind what to think, what to believe holds value, what brings them happiness, and even dictates the work each citizen is destined to do. It depicts a society that is conditioned by a false sense of happiness a lacks a basic human right- free will. From the moment they are born, individuals are brainwashed by hypnopaedia, a sleep teaching that conditions the individual to believe a certain way…show more content… A society that strives for control, characters that are conditioned to think a certain way and act a certain way, but in some cases break free from that very control. A good example of that, is John the Savage in Brave New World. John has the opportunity of seeing two different realities in Brave New World. The mainstream world that most of society is entrapped in, and the world of the savages. John is one of the only characters who has the chance to experience two different realities. He grew up on a reservation, far different from what the state created for the bulk of society, a world under false pretences with ignorant citizens. Despite the fact that John the Savage has the opportunity to experience two different ways of existence, the same isn’t true for those in Allegory of the Cave. The cave is all they know. Their experiences are merely a shadow on a wall, but because they have not experienced a different reality their own is not