Historically, great part of the western canon literature comes from authoritarian ages and, through fiction, values and concepts praised by the authorities were conveyed to people; it was an allegoric method of dissipating moral messages to instruct (GARNDER, 1997, p.115-116). Nowadays, however, art is released from these conceptions; literature is no longer attached to any sort of instruction. Ceia (2010) states:
(...) the comprehension of the significant possibilities of allegory will just be broaden when the exegesis are no longer at the disposal of hermeneutic schools, instead of the creative power of uncommitted readers. The long history of allegoric literature is parallel to the history of the interpretation of this literature, which was always subscribed under one fixed meaning. The opening of the allegoric meaning is a victory achieved by the 20th century Literary Theory.
It is this opening, dialogues enabled approaches among areas: cinema and literature; literature and painting; cinema, literature, and painting; photography and literature. Cinema has already developed its own theory and concepts, but scholars of literature, since its birth, felt attracted to flirt with, and vice-versa.
On its release, in 1999, The Matrix a flow of discussion started; people actually questioned themselves about the possibility of being plugged in the matrix without realizing it. Eleven years after, The Matrix is just a DVD or Blue Ray box at the video rental and there is less, or none, discussion about it. People who were too young at the movie releasing eventually question the ones who actually ‘entered the matrix’ and believed that anyone can be ‘the one’.
The power of perceiving and interpreting things in the world is in the human hands, despite some authors’ assumptions. It is as Blake said: To see a World in a Grain of Sand/ And a Heaven in a Wild Flower/ Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand/ And Eternity in an hour. It all depends on human perception; it all depends on human existence. At the end of the movie, before the credits and the striking song ‘Wake up’ by Rage Against the Machine, Neo says: “I know you’re out there. I can feel you now. I know that you’re afraid. You’re afraid of us. You’re afraid of change. I don’t know the future. I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin. I’ll hang up this phone and then I’ll show these people what you don’t want to see. I’m going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders and boundaries. A world where everything is possible. Where we go from there... is a choice I leave to you.”. With the final words spoken by The One, this paper will no longer continue, for all that could be said about it was already said; what the readers will think of it is a choice of their own.
REFERENCES
ALEGORIA. In: CEIA, Carlos. E-Dicionário de Termos Literários. Available at: < http://www.edtl.com.pt/index.php?option=com_mtree&task=viewlink&link_id=532&Itemid=2 >. Accessed: 30 April. 2010.
CULLER, Jonathan. O que é Literatura e tem ela importância? In: CULLER, Jonathan. Teoria Literária: uma introdução. São Paulo: Beca Produções Culturais Ltda., 1999. p.26-47
GARDNER, John. Metaficção, Desconstrução e Jazzing Arround. In: GARDNER, John. A Arte da Ficção: orientações para futuros escritores. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 1997. p. 115-130.
IRWIN, William. Computers, Caves, and Oracles: Neo and Socrates. In: Irwin, William (ed.). 2002. The Matrix and Philosophy. Welcome to the Desert of the Real. Chicago: Open Court.
LODGE, David. Intertextuality. In: LODGE, David. The Art of Fiction. Londres: Penguin, 1992, p.98-103.
LODGE, David. Allegory. In: LODGE, David. The Art of Fiction. Londres: Penguin, 1992, p.142-145.
MATRIX. In: The New Penguin English Dictionary. London: Penguin Books Ltd., 2000, p. 858.
The Matrix. Director and Writer: The Wachowski Brothers. Producer: Joel Silver. Actors: Keanu Reeves; Laurence Fishburne; Carrie-Anne Moss; Hugo Weaving. Los Angeles: Warner Brothers Pictures, 1999. 1 DVD (136 min), widescreen, color. Music: Don Davis.
