Young Writers Society

Ahem. I was originally intending on posting this in the Entertainment section, but thought (Though not very hard), about what it would encompass, and decided its intent would be better met here.

Assuming you have seen the first Wachowski brothers' The Matrix, and this discussion is only limited to the first, as the other two decomposed everything about it, you will understand when I say the movie itself is riddled with Christian references.

"Neo" literally means new, perhaps born again, and is also an annagram for "One." Jesus, throughout the entire Bible, is referred to as "the One" or "the Way" or "the Light" etc. So, it is not too far-fetched to then say Neo is a messianic figure, a Christ-like catalyst. As he enters the "desert of the real," as Morpheus grimly refers to it, he is blinded. He can not see for a short time, which is a direct adduction of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave". Neo, like Christ, has to believe in a higher power to derive his own. Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane had to place his faith in God to take care of everything; Neo, likewise, must place his faith in himself to do what must be done.

Peter Pan, on the otherhand, is for children, but still purveys the same message. As a mature person watching Peter Pan, you will see how perverse the movie is. It's a terrible, terrible movie in that respect. I mean, think about it, we have a "boy" (man-child, more or less) flying into little kids rooms and "playing" with them, particularly the daughters. Yes...well, moving on, it is unbelievable how similar the movies are. Both purport this notion that if you believe, then you have redemption, you can be with us, join me in wonderland, everything here is perfect.

To this end, it is notable that sure, you can believe in these things and join this ethereal surreality to break away from real life. However, you must concede that without the Matrix and without the Real World, there are many things that we would miss, like McDonald's and Wendy's. In short, we need the Matrix, we need "Reality," but at the same time, we need our transcendent understanding of the world, yet cannot fully live this idea out. We must take things in step with the other; even though Neo could constantly live outside of the Matrix and ultimately do whatever he wanted, he constantly returns to it. Why? You could logically say, "He's a Messiah and is therefore saving His people," and you could logically say, "There are things that he wants that he can only get from the Matrix."

Examining the colors used in the Matrix, we see Neo wears black. Not what we would consider a kristi color, particularly. At the same time, in LOTR, the evil wizard wears white. Why? I will leave this question for you to contemplate and answer at a later date, but keep in mind that these are two crucial ideas to grasp in order to come remotely close to comprehending the thematic indexes of The Matrix and Peter Pan. The colors in Peter Pan are much more traditional, green and pastelic

As a summarization: We need the Matrix ("Reality") just as much as we need to escape from it. Only if you "believe" can you do this, in turn metastasizing our escape into a religion. So are religions all escapes from reality? Does our faith in them allow us this escape, or do we need more to escape (Perhaps insanity?)? And, the most pertinent question of our time, can we escape the machination of reality?

Who wants to bet this thread trickles down the Randomness forum?

Hm... interesting. The thing about the evil wizard wearing white, though, has a problem. He was originally a good guy, but succumbed to evil. At that point, Gandalf became the White, while Saruman was stripped of his status and, ultimately, trapped inside his own fortress. I think that's more of a statement about sin than anything.

I know what's going on here . . . Brad's username has been hacked into by Agent Smith, whom is trying to convince us that we need the matrix, therefore we will not escape from the machines or Smith, and we will ultimately be his slave.


Oh, I've got you all figured out now. Nice try, nice try.
*eats Wendy's french fries*

You sound kinda atheistic. In the second or third movie, they showed the human city in the Real world, the people were partying, so they didn't need the Matrix to be happy.

Hmmm, I always found that reading too much into movies (or anything, for that matter) could be distorting, and I think you may have proved my case in point, Brad. Every character who "comes back from the dead" is not a Messianic character, the same way that every character who can fly isn't a Peter Pan one. Colors are sometimes just colors, and sometimes people who make movies dress their actors in black because, let's face it, black's cool.

So, two cents, added.

Hehe, this is old. XD

Inversion of traditional symbollism is quite common, especially with the colours white and black. To be beaten over the head with it, read Heart Of Darkness. But yeah Saruman the White was leader of the Istari until he joined Sauron, that's why he wears white...or at least the reason given. All the wizards have colours, Gandalf the Grey (later white), Radagast the Brown...etc

But yeah there's also a little part of me that argues "Neo wears black because he's just that bad-ass".

LOL, this is old!

I agree with Rubric's and Incan. Yes, Neo is bad-ass (in the first movies) and yes, the subsequent movies suck.

But yeah. It's funny reading how much your writing has changed over the last three years, Incan. You have a completely different style now.