Gerald Lovelace Visual Images & Literature Mr. Donahue 10/2/08 Comparison Essay What is a hero? A hero is someone who is looked up upon and idolized as a savior or significant figure. A hero usually takes a journey away from home to accomplish a heroic mission to save lives. The movie The Matrix, is about the salvation and survival of the human race from the Machines. The main character and protagonist Neo, is the savior of the human race. The Movie Pleasantville is a story of finding who you really are and your purpose in the world. The main character Bud transcends reality of the false world to make the human race show their true colors. The movies The Matrix and Pleasantville, the characters Neo and Bud are both symbolized as heroes who set people free and reestablish the community in some way. In these two movies and characters, there are a large number of similarities. The movies compare based on symbolism, theme, and the journey of the hero. Foremost, the movies Pleasantville and The Matrix compare with one another based on the subject symbolism. In the movie Pleasantville, there are scenes that contain significant and noticeable symbols that pertain to the theme of the story. For example, there is a scene where the normal, grey townsfolk are all at a town meeting to protest against the colored people. This is a symbol of racism against African Americans by Caucasian which was in great force around the 1950s. Another symbol in this scene was the poster in back of the mayor of the town. The poster was of two Caucasian’s handshaking. This shows the symbol of the white superiority which was also in effect around the 1950s and before then. This symbolism was also existent during the movie
The Matrix where all of the Agents who keep everything in order are of Caucasian ethnicity. The Matrix, just as Pleasantville tries to get the message of racism across to its viewers using symbolism. The Matrix and Pleasantville also have a range of different symbols in both of the movies. For example in the movie Pleasantville, the primary color of the movie is grey. While in The Matrix, the primary color for the actual matrix is green and in the real world has neutral colors such as black, white and grey. This is symbolism revealing what is reality and idealism to human life. The two different ways that the movies use these symbols of color are showing color in only one world. For example, in the movie Pleasantville, color was used to show the real side of people instead of the same old routine that they had in their lives before Bud arrived. However, in the Matrix, more colored and green substances represent the counterfeit.