Activities

1. To begin this assignment, the class will watch the movie (usually in two parts). Students are not excused from class if they have already seen it; I explain that seeing it again is very important. I usually hand out the study guide after showing the first half of the movie.

2. Students are to have the study guide fully read by the next class, and to come prepared to ask questions and discuss the movie. The study guide highlights and details particular points in the movie that I want them to pay attention to, such as meaning of character names (Neo: Anagram of "one." means "new;" becomes a "new" person after being unplugged/reprogrammed; he is "born again" via the symbolism of his birth-like expulsion from the pod. Thomas Anderson: "Doubting Thomas." Anderson: The Greek root "andr" (from "andros") = "man," therefore "Anderson" may be read as "son of man," referring to either Jesus or the medieval "Everyman" figure. Morpheus: Greek god of dreams who appeared as a man only in dreams. In comics, Morpheus is the name of the Sandman, Lord of the realm of dreams. [The fact that Morpheus's name belongs to a figure who appears only in dreams is an interesting point when discussing what exactly--if anything--happens to Neo] ), literary references (Simulacra and Simulation - Jean Baudrillard: The book where Neo keeps his hacked discs hidden. His thesis in S&S is that in our postmodern culture, images, copies--simulacra--do not simply imitate their originals, but replace them. Simulation becomes reality. The fact that Neo used a hollowed-out copy of S&S is perfectly symbolic of Baudrillard's theory. Morpheus: "Welcome to the desert of the real" - quoting Baudrillard; "the desert of the real" is a direct quote from Baudrillard. In an early draft of the script, Morpheus actually says: "You have been living inside Baudrillard's vision, inside the map, not the territory." That line was changed to "You've been living in a dream world, Neo."), and ideas such as doubting reality/what happens to Neo (Morpheus claims he is offering Neo the "truth:" "I didn't say it would be easy, Neo, I said it would be the truth." But in order to find out that truth, Neo must take a pill. Up to that point, we know Neo and his "friends" inhabit a world where hallucinatory drugs are common. When we first see Neo, he is sleeping. Several times as all the "weird" stuff begins happening to him, he'll wake up in bed as an abrupt transition. By the end of the movie, the Nebucanezzer has been disabled/destroyed by the sentinels, but Neo is back "in" the Matrix. Morpheus asks Neo if he's ever had incredibly life-like dreams, and if he would be able to tell the difference between "the dream world, and the real world." Morpheus's explanation to Neo: "What is real? How do you define real? If you are talking about what you can see, hear, taste, touch, or smell then real is simply electrical impulses interpreted by your brain." Remember that Morpheus was the Greek god of dreams. Interesting that the writers would choose this name to represent the man who shows Neo and the others the "truth.").

The study guide is meant to get students thinking about aspects of the movie that they might usually miss; the movie is fun just to watch, but is so full of references and symbolism that students usually need to deliberately look for it in order to see it.

3. After introducing the assignment, I devote the entire next class to discussion, usually incorporating writing exercises at the end. I want to make sure they understand at first the plot and then the issues, using the study guide as a starting point. It is during discussion that students really start to see connections and understand the levels of complexity that the movie has. Some major issues that have come up in discussion:

-- Is Neo really "the one" or is he dreaming the entire time? (Discussion of alienation, feeling useless and unwanted in today's world)
-- Can someone be enslaved if they don't know it? (Discussion of what it means to be enslaved; if we are in a "matrix" but don't know it, is it a bad thing? Especially in the movie's context, where "reality" is dark, cold, and desperate. Discussion of ways we are enslaved via race, class, gender, politics, religion, etc.)
-- After 9/11, the discussion changed in tone somewhat considering that Neo and his friends can be seen as terrorists who are forcing their beliefs on others, especially the scene where Neo and Trinity burst into the office building, killing many guards in order to gain access to the top floors where Morpheus is being held. The characters do this because they think that they are saving humanity from the controlling machines; in this way, there are disturbing parallels to the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11, who also thought that they were doing what needed to be done. At first glance, the movie seems to tell us that the "truth" that Morpheus is giving Neo is actually a truth; but closer examination of various scenes gives enough reasonable doubt so that we cannot be sure that what Neo is experiencing is actually "real." Given that, how far should he go to rescue the world? If we doubt at all that the world is enslaved, then watching Neo kill people takes on a whole new meaning. Students are uncomfortable with this take on the movie, because they want to see Neo as a hero; but it is certainly a take that should not be ignored.

4. The next several classes (depending on time frame) are devoted to various writing exercises, in small groups, that help students develop their ideas for their essay. At this stage you can use whatever strategies you favor for developing papers; groupwork is most effective at this stage because students are still full of ideas about the movie and want to talk about them. As they work in groups they develop a rough draft for the assignment.