So, I watched The Shawshank Redemption yesterday (Yes, I know, how could I not have watched it before, right?). My friendship with several people has been questioned as a result of my having not watched various movies. But that's beside the point.
Although many people I know would like to yell at me for not watching such an amazing movie earlier, I'm sort of glad I hadn't because I couldn't have appreciated it fully if I had. Having read about Plato's Cave Theory and watched The Experiment, The Shawshank Redemption made a lot more sense to me now than it could have before. Before I go on – and don't worry, I won't give any spoilers if there are people like me reading this who haven't watched the movie either – I'll tell you a bit about Plato's Theory. (You should read the real version with Socrates and Glaucon, but here is a briefer version of the concept, as I understand it. I'll give links to the Allegory in the comments below.)
Plato's Allegory of the Cave gives a situation of men living in a cave (with the cave wall in front of them and the cave opening behind). They are held in position, unable to move any part of their body except their eyes. Behind them, light streams in – from a fire or from the sun through the cave opening. Other people walk up and down behind them, their shadows thrown on the cave wall. The men in the cave see only the shadows and believe that they are real things. If they were to give names to the objects or people they see, they would be naming what they think is real, but is only a shadow. Then, if one day, one of the men is dragged out of the cave and made to look out at the light, his eyes would not react well to it and seeing 'reality' would hurt. What he is not used to will remain strange to him for a while. It would confuse him and disorient him. The world would not make sense to him because it is not what he has known in his entire life made up of shadows.
So, how does this connect to the movie? Well, I can connect Plato's theory with pretty much anything – even Tennyson's poem, The Lady of Shalott – but it had a very strong connection to a concept addressed in the movie which affected me quite a bit. Morgan Freeman (Red) talks about 'institutionalisation' – the result of being in prison for so many years that the walls that initially scared you, now comfort you. So much so that you wouldn't know what to do in the world outside, as a free man. Inside the prison walls, one gains authority (even among the prisoners). You may be the "man who can get stuff" or the "educated one" in charge of the library; but outside, you might not even be able to get a library card. The prison walls are much like the cave walls; the life the prisoners lead like the shadows the prisoners in the cave see; leaving the prison a free man like seeing the real light.
And this idea, of being so conditioned into a certain lifestyle (that you possibly once dreaded or feared), that 'normality' becomes alien to you, is slightly disturbing to say the least. The internalisation of the prisoner lifestyle or the role of a prisoner (and that of a prison guard) is so explicitly described in The Experiment based on Philip Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment. (Read up about it or watch the movie before you continue. Again, links are in the comments below)
Once you've accepted your role as a prisoner, you start believing that you deserve what you get. One prisoner in The Experiment acted in certain ways because he didn't want to get labelled a 'bad prisoner'. Guards, too, internalise their social roles. It's okay to beat up and abuse prisoners because they're a threat to society and they deserve punishment, and as a guard it is their duty to do so. There's no harm in actually harming them. But there IS. How does beating up anyone show power or 'rehabilitate' someone? Yet, that is what we have learnt.
The scariest part is that it isn't just prisons which have these phenomena. We're probably an active part of some giant experiment and we're all test subjects proving the hypothesis. We're conforming to social roles every minute of our lives. It's seen in how we treat our peers, our parents, our distant relatives, our maids, the waiter or the roadside beggar. There is quote that goes, "A person who is nice to you but is not nice to the waiter is not a nice person." There are too many 'not nice people' in our experiment. If and when we break away from the chains that hold us to our roles, how will we deal with the light?
Although many people I know would like to yell at me for not watching such an amazing movie earlier, I'm sort of glad I hadn't because I couldn't have appreciated it fully if I had. Having read about Plato's Cave Theory and watched The Experiment, The Shawshank Redemption made a lot more sense to me now than it could have before. Before I go on – and don't worry, I won't give any spoilers if there are people like me reading this who haven't watched the movie either – I'll tell you a bit about Plato's Theory. (You should read the real version with Socrates and Glaucon, but here is a briefer version of the concept, as I understand it. I'll give links to the Allegory in the comments below.)
Plato's Allegory of the Cave gives a situation of men living in a cave (with the cave wall in front of them and the cave opening behind). They are held in position, unable to move any part of their body except their eyes. Behind them, light streams in – from a fire or from the sun through the cave opening. Other people walk up and down behind them, their shadows thrown on the cave wall. The men in the cave see only the shadows and believe that they are real things. If they were to give names to the objects or people they see, they would be naming what they think is real, but is only a shadow. Then, if one day, one of the men is dragged out of the cave and made to look out at the light, his eyes would not react well to it and seeing 'reality' would hurt. What he is not used to will remain strange to him for a while. It would confuse him and disorient him. The world would not make sense to him because it is not what he has known in his entire life made up of shadows.
So, how does this connect to the movie? Well, I can connect Plato's theory with pretty much anything – even Tennyson's poem, The Lady of Shalott – but it had a very strong connection to a concept addressed in the movie which affected me quite a bit. Morgan Freeman (Red) talks about 'institutionalisation' – the result of being in prison for so many years that the walls that initially scared you, now comfort you. So much so that you wouldn't know what to do in the world outside, as a free man. Inside the prison walls, one gains authority (even among the prisoners). You may be the "man who can get stuff" or the "educated one" in charge of the library; but outside, you might not even be able to get a library card. The prison walls are much like the cave walls; the life the prisoners lead like the shadows the prisoners in the cave see; leaving the prison a free man like seeing the real light.
And this idea, of being so conditioned into a certain lifestyle (that you possibly once dreaded or feared), that 'normality' becomes alien to you, is slightly disturbing to say the least. The internalisation of the prisoner lifestyle or the role of a prisoner (and that of a prison guard) is so explicitly described in The Experiment based on Philip Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment. (Read up about it or watch the movie before you continue. Again, links are in the comments below)
Once you've accepted your role as a prisoner, you start believing that you deserve what you get. One prisoner in The Experiment acted in certain ways because he didn't want to get labelled a 'bad prisoner'. Guards, too, internalise their social roles. It's okay to beat up and abuse prisoners because they're a threat to society and they deserve punishment, and as a guard it is their duty to do so. There's no harm in actually harming them. But there IS. How does beating up anyone show power or 'rehabilitate' someone? Yet, that is what we have learnt.
The scariest part is that it isn't just prisons which have these phenomena. We're probably an active part of some giant experiment and we're all test subjects proving the hypothesis. We're conforming to social roles every minute of our lives. It's seen in how we treat our peers, our parents, our distant relatives, our maids, the waiter or the roadside beggar. There is quote that goes, "A person who is nice to you but is not nice to the waiter is not a nice person." There are too many 'not nice people' in our experiment. If and when we break away from the chains that hold us to our roles, how will we deal with the light?
Plato's Allegory of the Cave:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.historyguide.org/intellect/allegory.html
http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm
Stanford Prison Experiment:
http://www.prisonexp.org
http://www.simplypsychology.org/zimbardo.html
WOAH. Amazingly connected. I absolutely love how you've blown my mind with a piece. It just keeps getting better :')
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