Thinking Outside the Box

Plato and Sartre both chose to use allegories to describe the limitation of our thinking.  However, the two pieces differ in tone and theme. In "Allegory of the Cave," and "No Exit," the characters had different perspectives and challenges to overcome.  Although the plot lines, tones, and themes are disparate, the author conveys the same message of describing the limitation of our thinking.  Eventually, they imply solutions to the problem.

In "Allegory of the Cave," the characters were "shackled" and limited in knowledge and thinking because they chose to never look beyond what was there.  Therefore, they trapped themselves and weren't living to their full potential.  In "No Exit," the characters are trapped in their way of thinking by each other.  Each one influences the other, preventing them to think for themselves.  The reading suggests that hell is other people's influence; the only thing that was putting those people through hell was one another.

 Although both tones are informative, they include other different characteristics.  For example, in "Allegory of the Cave," the tone seemed to be more relaxed, because the characters did not know they were living in bondage.  However, in "No Exit," the tone includes some urgency, because the characters were going through hell.  The characters' circumstances in each affected the tones.

The themes of both works are disparate.  In "No Exit," one of the obvious themes was hell.  The ironic thing was that this hell was being created by one another.  Hell was related to existence and to one's idea of oneself.  The reason they were put through hell was because they were seeing the negative, shameful things in themselves in each other. A theme of "Allegory of the Cave" was knowledge is power.  The more the characters learned about their situation, the more they were able to break out of the "cave" and live a more fulfilling, empowered life.  It shows how ignorance can be crippling, and even trap a person into their mindset and beliefs.