IDEA OF THE MATRIX
Every human being questions the life that they live and searches the reasons of why they are here, whether they do it consciously or not. A person does this as a sense, as a form of thought and processes the things by the way it fits her or him. Therefore this reality creates differences between mind and understanding of reality. One thing may or may not be true to the other person and thus, making humans definition of reality unstable at all times. With the mankind’s birth, these values are discussed so many times. Sometimes it led to the better things and sometimes people just believed that the other one was superior, a leader and decided to follow them. A government or religion is an example to what has followers. There also have been places that wanted new creations, such as the well-known Plato and his academy. People started following him and his mind after realizing they were more astonishing from what they have had in their minds but never did it mindlessly. The academy was not only for thought-sharing but also provoking new ideas to be created and discussed and to define the reality even better. Why are we here? Who are we? Questioning began to take a bigger part of the life but also disappeared as the years passed on. Though it did not gain the importance it had back then again, such desire for thoughts always made themselves clear. The artists show their minds in a different way today. Schools of science, books, pictures or simply movies can also trigger what is inside of us and make us think on it. One of the most subtle examples of this is the movie The Matrix.
In the beginning of the movie, it has some key points that grasp the watchers. We can give the example “Matrix has you” to this. In autonomy, the word “matrix” means “womb” and therefore the whole trilogy starts with telling us that we are still in the hands of Mother Nature in a raw form. Due to the being in the start and also being in the dark, we cannot see nor think clearly. We are the slaves of such unshaped thoughts. This is also a very direct reference to the Plato’s “The Cave Allegory”. In the mentioned allegory, Plato tells us how people live in the shadows, have lived with different ideas shadows for centuries without looking back and seeing the true form, light and enlightenment.
Entering the universe of Matrix is all about realizing your surroundings and questioning them. The trilogy makes it very clear that the protagonist is the chosen one because he still seeks meaning and is not afraid of following a lead. The latter part of the sentence can be explained with the quote “follow the white rabbit”. This white rabbit is a clear reference to the Alice in Wonderland and proves us how Neo is not afraid of chasing something down. He is a form of human that has no boundaries, except his own mind. As an example, before he entered the virtual reality of matrix and was escaping from the agents, he did not go to the roof as Morpheus asked him to. His mind blocked him from freedom in a sense and only made his situation worse by getting captured. During his captivity, his ability to speak was taken away from him, much like how religion used to block the science. But if we are to look from a different aspect, the going to the roof could also be a reference to climbing to the Eden and the choice of not believing. Morpheus was a strong human being, someone that Neo admired and wanted to explore in mind with all of his questions (very much like a Semi-God) but still chose not to do as he asked him to. He refused his belief and fate by just thinking and applying what suits his own reality. He was not enlightened and could not grasp the idea of a parallel truth. If we were to use the allegory, we could say that he did see the light behind him and the path but was bound by chains and could not reach it.
The universe of Matrix also can be seen as a new religion as well as utopia and enlightenment. It seems to have the generalization of how it is everything and it is also nothing. It had everything one could touch, feel and sense but also had to keep in mind that it was only the perfect virtual reality. Even then, Morpheus says that people do not think and says that if they do not think then they hold a bigger potential of being an agent. So even the God figure of the movie accepts that his creation was flawed. Cypher also sees this and gives the most inhumane reaction of all, wants to live a life that is not real. His understanding of Matrix was also different and his reality, not being able to see others, crashes with others ideas and leading to violence. This shows us that even though Zion was the ultimate utopia and the ship Nebuchadnezzar was the oasis in drought, the creations of new thoughts were not always welcome. There is a right and wrong in a place that nothing can be correct. Human nature shows itself once again and proves us that there is punishment for everything. Cypher is a reference to the Cain as a character and much like Cain, he criticizes the work the Lord provides. There are several reasons to think Morpheus as the God and this also was an example to that. He was the creator of the ship, he is the wise, he is the one to control and one that makes you believe but also question. But the senses of mankind –agents- see him as a terrorist, very much like how the first people had seen religion. Anything that is extremely open scares the human being because there is nothing to explore or scare the other person with. Though he denies that and uses philosophy as an encounter and asks the question to Neo himself, telling him to believe in mind and to believe in this virtual reality. This is very much like the understanding of Saint Augustine and his take on religion. No faith can come from man himself and no mind can exist without any religion, they’re bond to each other to create a perfection. This child of curiosity is revolution and science, also known as the second enlightenment in the fiction of the story.
Other religious symbols are very visible after accepting this new universe and religion. In example the protagonist of the movie constantly judges before the God, very much like Jesus Christ. In fact there’s that he is a resemblance to the Jesus is mentioned in many places throughout the movie. As an example, at the start of the movie he talks to a drug dealer and the dealer tells him that Neo is his Jesus Christ or we are constantly reminded of he is the one. This also makes Trinity, one of the prophets because she was the one telling him about the Morpheus. However Neo constantly chooses not to believe and belief, along with control is what creates the Matrix as a whole. We see such denial throughout the whole movie until the very end. He then sees with body, mind and also as something more spiritual. He sees what everything is made of.
In the movie Matrix, this understanding of what people have in them also plays an important role. We, as humans are constantly being criticized for being like everyone else and for losing our senses as a human being. The movie reminds us that in order to be a human and enter the reality, we must start realizing our environment. It does not tell us to get educated in a scientific form but actually tells us not to lose our ability of thinking. When Morpheus says “We cannot free older minds”, this is because the thought-creating process starts from when we are born and slowly fades away. Therefore a human stops producing and questioning as he or she gets older. He implies that aged minds cannot take such pressure of accepting a new existence. They criticize basic humanity for being sheep that has no self-control and that needs a shepherd. Though one could say that they also use shepherds such as the oracle to show the path, Neo later shows that the ones that are selected are able to make their own choices regardless of what they’re being told. Because in Matrix, everything is possible and therefore the main characters are not afraid of taking chances. As an example, Neo goes to save the Morpheus when it was not done before or faces an agent without getting crushed by it. Just because he holds a higher capacity to understand and grasp the ideas, he can free himself more than others.
The references and ideologies in The Matrix can go on and on like this, honestly. However knowing what it criticizes and what was it main point with creating a virtual reality are the most basic yet effective ways to understand it as a whole. The movie expands much more with careful thinking and information on background. Such art that makes us create more in our minds will always be important and this movie is easily one that will always be talked on with different ideas.
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tarafından Jaska Ilmarinen Ptsi Kas. 17, 2014 11:06 pm
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