Character
Neo
Philosophy & Ethics
Arts, Music & MediaWho is Neo in the Agency editorial?
Neo is the protagonist of the film The Matrix, the one who receives from Morpheus the choice between a red pill and a blue pill. The Agency editorial recalls that scene in Issue.1 and in Issue.20, and both times it puts the reader in Neo's place, in front of the choice between truth and ignorance.
In short
Neo is the protagonist of the film The Matrix. In the Agency editorial he appears only as the one who receives the offer of two pills from Morpheus. Issue.1 recalls the scene after saying that the world economy is in a very bad place and that people tend to avoid the truth: the red pill is a painful dose of truth, the blue pill a perfect dose of illusion, and the reader is asked which one they have been taking. Issue.20, about truth, repeats the scene with the line "What's going to be, Neo? The red pill of pain or the blue pill of ignorance?" and describes the pills as two solutions to all of Neo's problems.
Key facts
- Which work does Neo belong to?
- The film The Matrix. Issue.1 names it when it describes the scene as one from the Matrix movie.
- What happens to Neo in the scene the editions recall?
- Morpheus offers him two pills. The red one stands for the truth, which is painful, and the blue one for illusion or ignorance.
- What do the editions say about Neo himself?
- Very little. Issue.20 says the two pills are offered as two solutions to all of Neo's problems. Neither edition says which pill he takes.
Who is Neo?
Neo is the protagonist of The Matrix, the 1999 science fiction film written and directed by the Wachowskis, in which he is played by Keanu Reeves. In the film, Morpheus offers him the choice between a red pill and a blue pill. The editions mention only that scene and do not tell the rest of the story.
How does Neo appear in the Agency editorial?
Issue.1 compares the habit of avoiding the truth about a bad economy to the scene in the Matrix movie where Morpheus offers Neo two pills: the red pill for a painful dose of truth, or the blue pill for a perfect dose of illusion. The question that closes the paragraph is addressed to the reader, who is asked which pill they have been taking.
Issue.20 opens its first section, about telling the truth, with the same scene. It writes the line "What's going to be, Neo? The red pill of pain or the blue pill of ignorance?" and says Morpheus asks it as he offers two solutions to all of Neo's problems. The edition then asks what the truth in the scene is and goes on to argue that truth is, most of the time, a point of view.
Source editions
Where this entry comes from in the Agency editorial.