poet and the society 2006

Since the begining of human history , men desired to understand the entities that surround them .
People who chose the love of knowledge as away of life asked questions to reveal the unknown .
Mankind called these curious people philosophers . they tried to define what human being is ,
what is bad and what is good and lot questions that need to be answered by looking for the truth ,
so that we can see that as being the tool for self حجpreservation , the desire for truth
, turned in to a value for mankind . In this field of people seeking for
knoweldge , i will discuss the issue of ganing knowledge , and the harm of poet and poetry in the
ideal society in platos world (Republic ) in this book plato claims that when ever we are looking to
learn something , we only get it through facts and true , there in no room for people to imagine or
follow their feeling or senses to know things , more over Plato in the Republic did band all poet
from his society , because as plato claims , poets encourage poeple to express their feelins and
emotions then people might be controled by their passions in the absent of their minds , which
may leads them to do do wrong thins or wrong judgment on things . Monaliza smile is the
title of a new movie that discuss the same issue about knoweledg sourcess and poets effect on the
society , in this movie we are able to another point of view and new teaching philosophy used by
the teacher to put her students in the right track of learing and discovering new aspects of their life
. Julia Roberts (the teacher ) is the symbole of a poet who tries his best to
simplify her ideas and deliver certain messeges to her students . Through out the
movie the teacher ( julia Roberts ) encouraged her pupils to turn from academic philosophy to the
active study and practice a new way of academic study which is to taste the art and criticise it , just
as the true artist approaches every thing in life with a distinct sensibility , expressing his feelings
and emotions in his work and shows in what he represent there , we can criticise them and
interpret them according to our own perspective .
Plato thinks that emotions and feelings are bad , because emotions
may control people , thats why he reject poet from his world , but as amatter of fact , people have
their own ideas and believe in their spirits and souls , which come up sooner or later , all what th
poet do is that he helps poeple to discover themselves before it come late for them , its only a
matter of time , Further more poeple( especiall poets ) all over the world follow their passion for
creating art often in variety of challenging circumstances , yet they all agree to the delight ,
curiosity and fun that artist creativity brings the life. Writers of novels , poems , plays
, movie and artist poeple who have thir craft in painting , drawing or playing any musical

instrument , their sounds and words helpe to shape our understanding of socity and culture .
We can see this when the teacher ( julia Roberts ) tell
her student to do what they wont to do and feel that they can do it encourage her student to be a
loyar , wrong doing and losing or gold chances , may be the only thing that harm our soul .
Every thing we claim to know by means of the senses is only appearance . Our
so called empirical knowledge is not really knowlldge < thats what plato claims > , which
goes the marrid girl idea about people and their appearance , when she was talking with her
mother about divorce she ask her mother to look at the painting of the Monaliza smile and see
what she maight get from it , her mother said that she is smiling according to her sight judgment ,
which is the complate knowledge , but her daughter learned to go beyound the image , then the
daughter said , is she happy in her life , her mother said , yes she seems to be happy because she is
smiling , then her daughter said , who knows she looks smiling but she maight smile on the grave
and sadness in her heart , this young girl experanced being decieved by appearance , and that was
her marrige , she pretend to be happy with her husband in her new life . She was triyng her best to
hide her sadness and upseting beyound the mask of smily face , she used to write articles with
photos to show her ability to mange her marrige with her study , until she discover that she was
decieved by the knwledge she got through her senses .
As an evidence to support the movie and the idea of knowledge , Socrates said that <people
seeks to reach the goal of reality , to reach this goal our souls need purification , the true
philosopher keeps his attention as much as he can away from the body and toward the soul ;
Moreover he then says that < the person most likely to succeed in this search is the man who
pursuses the truth by applying his pure and unadulterated thought to the pure and unadulterated
object > ( 65 C - 66 E ) . He goes on : if we are ever to have pure knowledge of anything we
must get rid of the body and contemplate things by themselves with the soul by itselfe , in this way
[ he says ] we shall gain direct knowledge of All that is pure and uncontaminated - that is
presumably , of truth . For Plato poetry is just immiting nature and and
coping it which give the illusion of real things . That was according to plato point of veiw , But
from the teacher ( Julia Roberts ) point of view we can say that she love and admire poetry and art
, she encourages her pupils to get their inner feelings , ideas , believe in the shape or the form of
paintings , its obvious that she can add things to life more than what nature provides us she knew

how to teach her student the way of expressing things and let our spirit and our soul to talk an
create its own creation an have our own identity . This effect on her students was
clear at the moment they all were holding their own art piece ( painting ) in her office , it was to
see such good changs in people life , that was what Plato hate about poets , that their ideas leads to
actions and changes wich will effect the stability of the ideal society , and this may help people to
raise their fortune and get the knowledge to arrgue with the high class ( philosophers ) and he
maybe able to join them which tends to cross the divition lines in the society . In the
Monaliza Smile every one has his own identity and his oen interst , just like the Republic where
every own have his own work to do , but the difference is , in the Republic people have to work
for work , but in the Monaliza Simle , every one is doing what he want to in aprodutive way and
sometime they tends to do more than one work due to their like or intres . People in
Plato's world an in our present days always try to satisfy their instaible curiosity by searching for
new things to learn and discover them , and this what is the students in the Monaliza Smile did .
They had organize their own meeting to discuss things , express themselves , reveal their inner
emotions and their spirtual interest ; Inaddtion they are trying to see the world from their own
angle . Such meeting may help them alot in developing themselves , facing their problems , and
they can gain knowledge from others experience . What ever one may think of their discussion and
arguments , the argumnts involve many intresting philosophical ideas to be considered , that was
clear when the teacher ( Julia Roberts ) tell her pupils her experience in love and relationships ,
she said that not all love relationships ends with marriage , then she discussed the issue of love ,
she told her student the difference between the love of eyes and the love of pure - hearted in which
people love you because of you , unlike love of eyes in which people love you because of your
beauty and appearance. This meeting will not be
accepted by Plato book the ( Republic ) when he says " this irrational side makes us display
emotions publicly which we shouldn't do "it is the law and reason in him which bids him resist;
while it is the affliction itself which is urging him to indulge his sorrow." Plato also belives that
being in such meeting with poet " the teacher - Julia Roberts " is dangerous , because poet and
poetry are unreliable source of truth , so that when you consult a poet and express you'r feelings to
him , you may be driven away from reality , poet give a great illusion of truth , the poet may use
the power of his words to control and rush you to do things and to behave in the way he likes ,

then you will be controled by you'r feelings and the words of apoet . But from what we had seen in
the Monaliza Smile , all the changes which happened to the pupils were good changes that turn
their life to be better . For example , their was agirl in the movie wants to be a lawyer which run
against her marriage and her future responsibillity , but was dying to be alowyer . One day , her
teacher ( Julia Roberts ) came to her home with the application that the girl need to make her
dream real , but the girl refused it , she has been changed because her teacher ( the poet
according to Plato ) told them and teach them to do what they want and what they feel it would be
good for them , upon that the girl decided to be a good wife rather than being a lawyar and waste
her time working instead of having kids and enjoy her youth , such change was good for the girl
future and life . Tears and crying are bad , because revealing such emotions shows you'r
weakness to the public , so it will harm you and other people may abus you due to their
knowledge about you'r weakness . That was according to Plato point of view , but in the
Monaliza Smile when ever the audience a tear or some one cry they immediately realize that some
one is struggling and something wrong that need fixing , either fixing the situation , the person or
the society itself . People need to reveal such emotions as an alert for the society , to the
existence of a problem , which need to be fix as soon as possible . At the end , still Plato , the
father of philosophy scince , he is a man that has , in away , been immortalized . Even though , he
lived and died thousands of years ago , his thoughts and his ideas still live on today and still the
main issue of most discssion meetings .