Thinking Outside the Box

Sartre and Plato stories where interesting pieces of work. They both had some similarities with limitation and tone. I felt though there where also differences with characters and how the settings where developed.

In Plato's Allegory of the Cave the limitation for the story is the prisoners shackled. They are limited of knowledge and only get hold of what they think is reality. The prisoner's limitations in the cave is them not being to see the whole truth. The cave and shackles is their limitation. They are limited to freedom. In Sartre's No Exit limitation, was tricky for me to actually find. I would think the limitation the three characters is being stuck in the room together forever. They have no say so in anything, their freedom is limited. They are stuck in hell and can never leave. They may speak and do whatever, but they are not aloud to leave the room. The room is there limitation. In both works you see their freedom is limited.

I feel the tone in both works where pretty similar. They both held a seriousness. In Plato the tone you can tell was serious because it talked about humanity. It explained how one can not fully grasp reality, how humanity is some what ignorant. In Sartre's I also thought the tone was serious. Especially with each character, they told the reason why they where sent to hell. I felt these people were also ignorant. So the similarity is in each piece of literature the people were ignorant.

I felt the settings where also similar in a way. The cave when the prisoners, saw the light the some wanted to shrink back to the cave. They could not handle reality and the cave was the only thing they felt safe in. The room in No Exit I felt held similar meaning. When Garcin had the chance to leave, the outside the heat hit him. He wasn't sure what was out there and he went back inside. Unsure himself, the room was the only thing he knew that was safe. So I felt both settings where there safe house.

Plato and Sartre I also felt had many differences. For instance, how the settings where developed. In Sartre the setting was developed through Dialogue. The man Garcin, was asking about the room and saying things that where in there. In Plato the setting was simple ot right described with much detail. Another thing different was the characters. In Plato the characters where forced there, to be in the cave. They had no choice, they where shackled and could not move. Satre his characters made poor choices, and dug their on grave to hell. Their actions caused them to be there.

As you can see, Plato and Sartre works had many similarities but also had differences. It was interesting to compare the two, they were great reads.