In the four minute YouTube clip from the movie “The Matrix,” we see Morpheus offer the choice of the red pill or the blue pill to Neo, the red pill being the painful truth about reality and the blue pill being living in ignorance and to believe in what ever you want to believe.
Neo is being offered a choice. His decision is made merely on persuasion. The concept of Rhetoric which means the art of persuasion is being used.
In Aristotle’s “From On Rhetoric,” he says “there is persuasion through the hearers when they are led to feel emotion [pathos] by speech; for we do not give the same judgment when grieved and rejoiced or when being friendly and hostile. To this and only this we said contemporary technical writers try to give their attention.” Pg 115-6. Speech is the persuasion Morpheus is using to try and convince Neo to take the red pill. He says that “it is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to bind you from the truth” to persuade Neo that the life he lives is nothing but a lie. His words and gestures persuade Neo to what he thinks is the truth. But “what truth” are we talking about here? Living life day by day thinking there might be a Matrix or living the wonderland life and seeing with your own eyes what the Matrix really is. According to Aristotle, “persuasion occurs through the arguments when we show the truth or the apparent truth from whatever is persuasive in each case.” Pg. 116. Neo believes what Morpheus tells him. He wants the truth but the only truth he knows is what he has lived, not what Morpheus tells him he is going to live. So which one should he believe?
“Unfortunately no one can be told what the matrix is? You have to see it for yourself. Remember all I’m offering is the truth, nothing more.” What a line to persuade someone into thinking that the only thing they offer is the truth. But is it really? How does Neo know what Morpheus is saying is the truth? He doesn’t. He believes in what ever he wants to believe whether this means taking the red pill or the blue pill. When someone asks you what you know but you are unable to explain it, it’s hard to trust that person, but when someone says they have seen and know the things you know and have seen, you begin to trust them. They tell you that “ironically this is not far from the truth” and you think to your self then what is “truth”. Aristotle says that rhetoric is like making a judgment. Then what judgment did Neo make? To believe what is being told by another or to believe what he wants to believe. Taking the blue pill or the red pill was a choice made ultimately by Neo with the persuasion of Morpheus. He knows what he can’t explain but has it done by someone else.
Works Cited
"Matrix “Decision." YouTube. 13 Feb. 2011. Web. 13 Feb. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEAcHBRPr9A&feature=BF&list=FLgnzwjj16RAA&index=1>.
Aristotle. "From on Rhetoric". ed. Leitch, Vincent B. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 2nd ed.
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