Rebel Without a Cause

The drawings that appear repeatedly as you research into the many interpretations of Plato’s words create a signified representation based on the signifiers Plato escribed in his writings – the words he used. The existence of such a variety of images, from different times, drawn in different ways, for different reasons, all depicting the same scenario but with different views on the cave Plato describes in his dialogue with Socrates, is testament the existence of the metaphysical world. All the images are different, yet all have a certain caveness, atmosphere of a cave, which makes them undoubtedly the visual depictions of Plato’s theory of

Now let us take a look into the background of the story. Plato gives his ideals on a perfect society and everything it should include. He basically implies that justice is rightness, and rightness is whatever he feels it should be. He breaks society down into guardians, wage earners, and auxiliaries. Wage earners are people such as surgeons or shoemakers.

Rebel Without A Cause is a very popular film from 1955. It depicts life in the 1950's from the viewpoint of three teenagers who live in Los Angeles, California. They live in a comfortable environment in middle-class America. However, they must deal with their own inabilities to "fit" into society. The teens try to fit in with their peers and find the love they so desperately need from their families and others like their peers. The biases presented in the film's are based on cultural values form the 1950s. Rebel Without A Cause also compares to some of the data presented in the text Nation of Nations. The film also compares to the general view America has of the period of the

Plato is clear that not all men are prepared to decline the comfort provided by ignorance to invite the unknown. He does not “present a doctrine” as much as he “prepares the way for philosophizing” (Bloom XXI). It requires man to adopt an outlook perpetually critical of seemingly objective experiences and knowledge. Doing so, according to the “Allegory” means questioning your peers’ reality and willingly declining the comfort of simplicity and familiarly for the ability to experience reality through thought. It means ditching the safety of the cave’s darkness for the chance to experience the brilliance of the sun—Plato’s message is clear: reality and reason are most real when man is critical of what he’s established to be objective fact. One strong example from the text is when is when the prisoner’s eye witness freedom: “And if he compelled him to look at the light itself what his eyes hurt him but he fully turning away to those things that

It is interesting to notice that this Platonic form can be seen in various ways in both the human on a micro scale and in Jesus or God on a higher level. The human body, for instance, (as Plato noted) serves as garb for the soul. We can assume certain gestures, paint our faced, mask our mannerisms and looks; we can play around with our externals, but there is a soul that emanates from within, and this soul emerges through appearances such as looks, tears, or speech.

When Judy asks about Jim, Plato tells her that they’re best friends and even knows little details about him like his nickname “Jamie”. But we later learn that Plato and Jim have only known really each other for less than a day. When Jim offers him his iconic red bomber jacket for Plato’s gun, Plato without hesitation takes the offer and hugs the jacket. We see him having a moment with the jacket, putting it to his face on it and caressing it. Though he fails numerous times, Plato demonstrates desires to defend Jim from Buzz. He also takes on the role of the quintessential female counterpart watching his man in the sidelines in a “sword fight” at the planetarium with a face full of fear and worry. Yet, it is never explicitly revealed to us if he’s actually gay. There were also a handful of moments in the film where the dividing line between Plato’s desire for a paternal figure and his homosexual desires for Jim were cloudy. He also never explicitly professes his feelings for Jim in the film. Although Plato’s homosexuality was clear and unquestionable, it’s done skillfully without having to explicitly mention about it. His homosexuality is only revealed when reading between the lines of the script.

Rebel Without a Cause led way to the first on-screen teenage bad boy. James Dean plays a disgruntled teenager (Jim) is unsatisfied with life and the patriarchy of following the rules. He hates that his dad lets his mom run the household and caters to her versus the traditional father makes all the rules stance. Rebel Without a Cause allows for a deep consideration of what the stereotypical 1950s teenager felt. The movie looks at teenage relationships with the older generation and exclaims the disdain both parties share for one another during the tremulous coming of age time. Jim’s parents are not sure how to raise him the best way, and he loses respect for them judging on how they interact with him and each other. The other main teenage characters within the film are Judy portrayed by Natalie Wood, and John "Plato" Crawford portrayed by Sal Mineo. Natalie Wood’s character is probably reminiscent of what many young female teenagers went through at the time. She deals with gender issues and must find her way as a developing young woman when her parents seem clueless to her concerns and struggles. Her father does not know how to guide her through this next stage of life and instead turns her away which causes her to feel bad about herself. Her Mother has no real clue on how to help either of them as well. Plato is also a striking character within the story that is utterly confused and has no real guidance in life. All three

He writes, “when turned towards the twilight of becoming and perishing, then [the soul] has opinion only, and goes blinking about, and seems to have no intelligence” (Book VI, p. 25). By establishing opinion as the opposite to the ultimate good, and by definition, the ultimate evil, he criticizes the use of rhetoric and persuasion while praising to his long-winded, circuitous form of writing. By continually asking questions and telling parables, Plato avoids direct advocation of his beliefs and allows his readers to discover the truth for themselves, rather than to be coerced through eloquent language.

Plato, being a Socratic apprentice, followed and transcribed the experiences Socrates had in his teachings and search of understanding. In Plato’s first work, The Allegory of the Cave, Socrates forms the understanding between appearance vs. reality and the deceptions we are subject to by the use of forms. In the cave, the prisoners’ experiences are limited to what their senses can tell them, the shadows on the walls, and their shackles; these appearances are all that they have to form their ideas. When one of the prisoners begins to question his reality he makes his way out of the cave and into the day light. This prisoners understanding of his reality has now expanded, thus the theory of forms; when he returns to the cave to spread the news, the others do not believe him. They have been deceived by their reality and what

This paper discussed The Allegory of The Cave in Plato's Republic, and tries to unfold the messages Plato wishes to convey with regard to his conception of reality, knowledge and education.

Plato's main goal in the Allegory of the Cave is to communicate the relevance and importance of the concept of intellectual perspective. His real agenda is to illustrate that most people are likely perceiving the world around them in a much more limited manner than they realize and that most of us are, to some degree, living our lives in the same circumstances as the prisoners he

Plato's views on Forms, Ideas, and Knowledge are all expressed beautifully in the allegory of

This paper was prepared for Introduction to Film History, Module 1 Homework Assignment, taught by Professor Stephanie Sandifer.

And so, Plato is who he is, and he will not be swayed. He is determined to continue with his mission in life, challenging current ideas, with an objective of examining his own thinking, as well as those about him. His signature concept is: “The unexamined

Plato is remembered as one of the worlds best known philosophers who along with his writings are widely studied. Plato was a student of the great Greek philosopher Socrates and later went on to be the teacher of Aristotle. Plato’s writings such as “The Republic”, “Apology” and “Symposium” reveal a great amount of insight on what was central to his worldview. He was a true philosopher as he was constantly searching for wisdom and believed questioning every aspect of life would lead him to the knowledge he sought. He was disgusted with the common occurrence of Greeks not thinking for themselves but simply accepting the popular opinion also known as doxa. Plato believed that we ought to search for and meditate on the ideal versions of beauty, justice, wisdom, and other concepts which he referred to as the forms. His hostility towards doxa, theory of the forms, and perspective on reality were the central ideas that shaped Plato’s worldview and led him to be the great philosopher who is still revered today.