Agnel George
Tara Chambers
ENGWR 300
31 January 2015 The Good In Television Shows When we say good in any sentence there is lot of meaning that good can become. Good is something that can make us happy. So whatever that make us happy is good. There is good in television shows, we watch them because it’s entertaining us and that is good. The shows are good to us but they are also showing advertisements like shadows, the reality of something that is not there and good messages. In the allegory of the cave from Plato is talking about a small den where prisoners are chained to their neck and legs were they can’t turn round or move. The prisoners are facing a wall on one side. The prisoners are look at the wall were the wall acts as small screen for the shadows to be casted on. The shadows is being casted from the fire that is burning on the other side of the den. The dark den has the wall were the puppeteers are casting shadows from the light of the fire.
Television is for entertainment and people watch reality shows to see the reality of something that is being showed on television. The reality of a reality show is that they are not real because most television shows are staged on a set and most of the time the contestants are told what to do. In the allegory of the cave similar things are happening. Inside the cave it’s dark; “at first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck around and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress of which in his former state he had seen the shadows” (Jacobus 451). The prisoners can’t move their heads or legs because they are chained from seeing the reality behind them. The television shows are putting an invisible chain around our neck when we watch them. We watch them even if the show is staged because the name says its reality. Before we see the show on the television it has already been edited, and only the good parts on the shows are being telecasted. In order to edit and get the best shots the camera’s always rolling, but we the viewer’s only get to see the good parts because they only want us to see what they want us to see. In the cave the prisoners can be compared to us as viewers because they are only seeing the shadows that are casted by the fire burning behind them and the prisoners are not seeing how the fire looks or where the fire is burning. The actors are not really actors they are people just like us only reason they are acting is because they got picked to the show. The actors are trying to be best at what they do, but as viewer we see them as the reality of the show.
The reality of television shows these days are not what they seem to be. We watch television shows to pass time or to pleasure ourselves with happiness. Some shows are staged and they call it the reality but is really the reality? The problem with the reality show is that it is not the reality that they are showing. A reality of a show happening in real is not that high. For example the show called The Amazing Race is promoting advertisements without our knowledge of knowing that we are watching ads while we enjoy. In the show they are promoting the Ford cars and travel site called Travelocity by giving away prizes to winners. In the allegory of the cave by Plato there is the connection between the reality show and cave “here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads…… and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see , if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show puppets” (Jacobus 450). The prisoners are being forced to see something that is not there and they are only seeing what is not real. The shows are advertising their