"Antigone Donnant la Sépulture à Polynice" (1825) by Jean-Louis Bezard

Tasked with lightly analyzing the tragic storyline of the Sophoclean play, "Antigone" alongside Plato's "Allegory of the Cave," Alana Taije writes:

"(In relation to:) Antigone was devoted to protecting her brother. Her blatant refusal to disobey her family resulted in her completing [a] solemn and sorrowful cycle of fate... (In relation to Plato's Allegory:) These shadow figures would be their only sense of truth and reality, as [they] ‘would have kept their gaze motionless if not to speak to one another’ (10-13). [They] would have assumed names for their world of shadowy objects and faceless voices, only for one to be ‘freed’."

"Plato's Cave" (1604) by Jan Pietersz Saenredam after Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem

While briefly enrolled in the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, New York, Alana Taije fulfilled a Literary Arts course with Professor Timothy Leonido. One of the first few weeks of discussion prompted discourse regarding Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" and John Carpenter's 1988 film, "They Live."

Referencing both pieces of media, [Prof.] Leonido states that “being exposed to the truth is too disruptive,” leaning into the idea that the upheaval of one’s past self is ‘bad’ and/or too intense for one to endure. [He] further claims how feelings of isolation and strife for authenticity are ‘not worth it’ in the grand scheme of things, since [socialized humans] typically function under false pretenses anyway.

Taije responds to this in opposition.