Chocolat Parallels Allegory Of Essay, Research Paper
The Movie Chocolat is yet another story which parallels Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. The story deals with a town full of people experiencing an awakening through the eating of chocolate.
Vianne and her daughter open up a Chocolaterie in a small French town during the season of lent. They are met with stiff opposition from the mayor because of this and because they do not attend church. Slowly, the townspeople begin to visit the shop. When they enter Vianne asks them to look at a spinning clay plate and tell her what they see. After they do this she then tells them what their favorite chocolate is. The first time customers become returning customers quickly. It seems the townspeople cannot get enough of her chocolate. It is similar to the real world in Allegory of the Cave and sexual experimentation as seen in Pleasantville.
The townspeople eventually begin to realize that there is more to life than always following the rules and doing what the mayor says is right. One woman from the town who was in an abusive relationship with her husband befriends Vianne and takes up residence with her. Through Vianne’s encouragement and the chocolate business the woman realizes that she needs to leave her husband. He attempts several times to regain her trust but she holds strong and does not return to his side. Vianne’s landlady had a grandson who she was not allowed to see because his mother was too overprotective of him. Vianne convinces him to come by the Chocolaterie and visit his grandmother. He is hesitant to try the chocolate at first but eventually they teach him to let loose. His mother eventually catches him but by the end of the movie she too experiences a change of heart.
The chocolate that is served in the Chocolaterie allows people to let their inhibitions go and enjoy themselves. The feel free and they open up their minds to another way of life. It is an awakening for them just as showing the men the real world was in Allegory of the Cave and sexual experimentation was in Pleasantville. Vianne lets the townspeople realize what they are missing. She changes a town forever and the town also forever changes her.