Mark Twain once said, "Every piece of writing is influenced by a once-written piece…it is not derivative if the matter is arranged in a manner that relates to the readers of those times" - The Matrix review.

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Mark Twain once said, “Every piece of writing is influenced by a once-written piece…it is not derivative if the matter is arranged in a manner that relates to the readers of those times.” This quote may have very well been worded exclusively for the Wachowski brothers (writers of The Matrix). To the general viewer, The Matrix is a movie on how mankind has lost all its individual senses to the power of technology. The remarkable special effects combined with the thought-provoking dialogues seem brilliant to the common viewer. Even though there is no doubt that the special effects are truly innovative, the thought processes put into the provocative dialogues and ideas of the movie have begun centuries ago. Nevertheless, these ideas have been so expertly incorporated into a modern package that many people outright disagree that the Wachowski brothers have been influenced by a couple of clever people who put their thoughts to paper a hundred years ago. Although it is not visible to the unobservant eye, right from Plato’s cave allegory to Robert Frost’s thoughts on taking the road less travelled, the Wachowski brothers rely on noteworthy theories by prominent personalities for the formation of their story.

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        The most apparent use of a theory in the film is that of Plato’s cave allegory. The allegory describes a dark underground cave where groups of people are sitting in one long row with their backs to the cave's entrance. Chained to their chairs from an early age, all that the humans can see is the distant cave wall in from of them. Their view of reality is solely based upon this limited view of the cave which is a poor copy of the real world. Similar to the prisoners of the cave, the humans trapped in the matrix (which signifies ...

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