(IMPORTANT NOTE: Keep in mind the following is an example of a minitheme on the film The Matrix. When writing minithemes for written texts, you must use PAGE NUMBERS & WORD-FOR-WORD QUOTATIONS to support your argument.)

Name: John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt
Date: January 1, 2008
Title: "Neo's Evolution: Mirrors, Death, and Growth"

Thesis Statement

The Matrix is preoccupied with how mirrors appear to signal growth in Neo's life. One sees mirrors, or mirrored surfaces, on:

Textual Support

Morpheus's sunglasses. Morpheus is the only one who wears "mirrorshades." The Agents wear a more common variety of sunglasses that are not mirrored.

The pill case that Morpheus twirls in his hand during his and Neo's first meeting.

The spoon at the Oracle's apartment. Later Neo states, "There is no spoon," as he and Trinity begin their attack on the Agents.

The doorknob on the Oracle's door.

The mirror following Neo's ingestion of the red pill.

Interpretation

What is clear about all these instances is that they go hand in hand with steps in Neo's evolution from nihilism. At each point that we see a mirror, we see Neo make a choice, accept a challenge, and take a position. This taking a position slowly weans him away from his state of nihilism. When Neo accepts the red pill, he is faced with the shiny pill case and Morpheus's glasses. Much of the film is taken up with a series of tests: Neo fighting Morpheus, jumping from a building, or taking on the Agents. In the background or foreground of all of these actions are Morpheus and his glasses. Incidentally, most of these tests involve death. It is as if Neo has to face death to change. In a sense, the entire film, by portraying the environmental disaster from humanity's creation of dangerous machines (AIs), is trying to make us face death. And, by facing, death, we will take action and leave our nihilism behind.

Questions and/or Suggestions

Two suggestions: 1) The mirror symbolizes Neo's need to be introspective, to rethink who he is. This need leads to his evolution away from nihilism towards Belief and is driven by his constant facing of death. 2) All of the mirrors in the film are external and fixed to more mature or enlightened individuals. Perhaps their maturity in some way is what leads to a reevaluation of Neo's own life; he considers himself in light of them and doesn't like what he sees.