Thinking Outside the Box

In  "Allegory of the Cave", Plato describes a group of people chained together, whom believe what they see and experience to be truth due to that being all they have known. Plato describes people unable to think for themselves, because hey have been merely confined from knowledge and reject new ways of thinking and ideas.  When the man is able to go out of the cave and learn of other things, no one believes him. We tend to reject new things, which is ultimately what is holding us back from blossoming.

Sarte described in, "No Exit," the experiences of three people in hell. These people don't come to the terms of being in hell because their expectations of hell are much different than their experiences. They unconsciously decide not to help each other figure out what is going on. Instead they create a personal hell, and begin torturing each other. These stories are similar in their characters struggles. They are unable or unwilling to figure out their problems and reach out into new possibilities and knowledge.

 Sartre and Plato use different writing techniques and to get there message and purpose to the audience. Plato’s allegory uses dialogue within the story to illustrate his ideas. The people are limited to their thoughts not by force, but because it is their own personal choice. The “shackles” in the story represent the characters themselves, and even after the man escaped and came back to teach them, they refused his knowledge. The problem of the people isn't that they are incompetent  but that they  refuse to branch out and grasp knew knowledge presented before them. Humanity tends to set their own limitations.
 Sartre's writing on the other hand uses an actual conversation between characters  to set the tone and theme in action. In a similar way, the characters in, "No Exit" have there own limitations they have set, but also have been set for them. They perceive hell to be a certain way and don't even think twice to look for the answer.The limitations being set for them being them being placed there without a further word of instruction.

There are such distinction in the writings of these author, and yet they have a similar purpose. The purpose being the limitations we set or have been set on the human mind.