Often in today's fast-paced world we often speak without thinking - failing to notice and admire the complex design that makes up our language. This can range from the identification of prepositions to the mere distinction between words. “Realization” and “recognize” are two such words, and while they may be used interchangeably in society, they do not mean the same things but are words that describe varying degrees of a similar process. Recognition is the use of prior experience and knowledge - one can look to the root “cognition” - to identify facts. Whereas realization is something greater - an attempt to accept an idea or conceptualize it’s meaning which often incites action.
The application of these words to situations in both literature and the modern arts is very different as well. Sophocles' tragedy, Oedipus the King, for instance. The climax of the play occurs when Oedipus realizes his father is the man he killed in a fit of rage and that is wife is his mother. After this realization Oedipus is consumed with grief and eventually blinds himself, an acceptance of truth and full knowledge which then leads to an action. It is quite different from - yet also similar to - his recognition earlier in the play of the story of how the old king was killed - for it was his own story of his journey to Thebes.
In the movie The Vow the protagonist, Paige, who has suffered from amnesia, recognizes a former friend who had an affair with her father. Her past experience with the woman allowed her to recognize her, and she later realized that the affair was the reason she stopped communicating with her family. Following this realization she leaves her family once more to live on her own. Again recognition, allowed a realization, which then incited an action.
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