Comparison Essay: Rough Draft

Comparison Essay: Rough Draft
Sartre VS. Plato

Actions speak louder than words. Each individual is judged by their actions and reactions to various situations. These actions and reactions often cause the people around them to create a reputation of who they are even if they don’t really know them. The Allegory of the Cave by Plato and No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre are based around the idea that actions can reveal or hide a characters true colors to the audience. For example, the prisoner in The Allegory of the Cave was able to escape, which uncovered a whole new world or reality. Now, if the prisoner was put back into the cave after his enlightenment, he would not have the same point of view as those around him, which would cause massive changes to take place and influence his actions.

The prisoner would be stuck in a completely different place despite the fact that the cave used to once be his home. The things that were once so familiar will look foreign to the prisoner. He is going to have to accept his difference in point of view in order to live a happy life. This acceptance could also open the doors to a new horizon for the prisoner because he sees and thinks more now than he had ever before due to his expansion of what reality truly is. Now, he is going to want to change the others around him, but this is an impossible quest. Sadly, they don’t understand or learn from him due to the fact that they are going to think he has gone mad since they don’t have the same point of view as him. The prisoner must left go of his past in order to be prepare for the future.

Now, if Estelle from No Exit had to deal with the changes presented to the prisoner, she would remain trapped within her old point of view instead of facing the differences or changes. Estelle would play dumb and try to remain in the dark in the hopes of keeping things the same, but this is an impossible wish. Things are always changing, morphing, and developing no matter how hard we try to stop them. The quest to keep things the same will cause Estelle to become depressed and tortured until the end of time, which shows the dark aspects of Sartre’s literature.

The two pieces of literature hold a common theme of the importance of enlightenment and a true reality. Plato and Sartre have there respective differences, but they both play with the different sides of reality through their character’s actions. The actions of the characters show the changes within their points of views and how they are able to cope with those changes.